How many detectable alien civilizations are out there in our galaxy? In 1961, astronomer Frank Drake developed an equation to estimate the number. Now data journalist David McCandless, who gave the talk “The beauty of data visualization” at TEDGlobal 2010, has created an information graphic for the BBC calculating the Drake Equation — with a twist. It’s interactive, and you can be as optimistic or skeptical as you like as you set the value of each variable in the equation. Any tinkering leads to highly different conclusions.
Jill Tarter, the head of the SETI Institute, would no doubt set her variables on the optimistic side. Tarter gave the wonderful TED-Ed lesson “Calculating the Odds of Intelligent Alien Life,” which explains the Drake Equation and its many variables. Tarter won the TED Prize in 2009 and called for more people to join the search for extraterrestrial life. “From my perspective, we live on a fragile island of life in a universe of possibilities,” says Tarter in her talk. “So what exactly is SETI? Well, SETI uses the tools of astronomy to try and find evidence of someone else’s technology out there. Our own technologies are visible over interstellar distances, and theirs might be as well … SETI doesn’t presume the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence; it merely notes the possibility, if not the probability in this vast universe, which seems fairly uniform.”
Chris Anderson, TED’s intrepid curator who made the TED-Ed lesson “Why can’t we see evidence of alien life?,” would be optimistic too. “In the past year, the Kepler space observatory has found hundreds of planets just by nearby stars. If you extrapolate that data, it looks like there could be half a trillion planets just in our own galaxy,” he says. “If only one in 10,000 has conditions that might support a form of life, that’s still 50 million possible life-harboring planets right here in our Milky Way.”
But the real question is — how optimistic or skeptical will you be as you play with McCandless’ interactive data set? View the full chart here >>
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commented on Sep 9 2012
Reblogged this on bharathwriting and commented:
an interesting study
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Madhavi Gavini commented on Sep 6 2012
The idea of the existence of homo sapiens in the milky way is wishful thinking …however the existence of other life forms in the milky way can be true.
Norman Greenberg commented on Sep 7 2012
True, they probably wouldn’t be homo sapiens, but I would not be surprised if they shared many similarities with us. The developments of matter and stars in addition to evolutionary processes favor certain modes of existence. I’d venture to say that it’s a large possibility that the same modes were favored somewhere else, with some adaptations for the specific environment. it’s quite possible, and very exciting!
Madhavi Gavini commented on Sep 9 2012
Sure..any permutations and combinations of genes are possible!
commented on Sep 6 2012
Reblogged this on munch + muse and commented:
interesting read
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commented on Sep 6 2012
Reblogged this on テストブログ and commented:
Testing 3
commented on Sep 6 2012
Reblogged this on bordode and commented:
Cool
commented on Sep 5 2012
Reblogged this on SBS-Seattle.com.
commented on Sep 5 2012
That is certainly a good way of thinking about it. I have always with out a doubt believed in the possibilities or other life out there. I mean the universe is so big surely we cannot be alone. If people believe in god why not intelligent Life?