Life in Space

Today in class we discussed topics regarding life in space... experiments and data collected, messages sent out and more.

We dove into a number of topics this class: the Drake Equation, the Fermi Paradox, the Miller-Urey Experiment, the Arecibo Message and the Irreducible Complexity argument.

The Drake Equation

An equation that purports to yield the number, N, of technically advanced civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy as a function of other astronomical, biological and psychological factors.

N = R* * fp * ne * fl * fi * fc * L

where:

R∗ = the average rate of star formation in our Galaxy

fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets

ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets

fl = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point

fi = the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations)

fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space

L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space

This equation was created by Frank Drake, an American astronomer who was heavily involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Frank Drake worked with his colleague, Carl Sagan, at Cornell University when he came up with this equation in 1961. The creation of this equation helped scientists greatly with understanding the factors involved when determining the likelihood of finding other civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Fermi Paradox

The Fermi Paradox is what fueled Frank Drake to create the Drake Equation. It states that if there are so many stars, then there must be other civilizations (remember that there are far more planets then stars). Enrico Fermi knows that "we haven't heard from any (civilizations), so why not?"

Brian Cox on the other hand thinks that "maybe we should start considering that we ARE the only ones" This would to start compel individuals to take better care of planet earth and to do something great with the short life that they have,

The Miller-Urey Experiment

Many scientists believe that in order to understand and find potential life on other planets, we must first understand the origin of life on OUR planet. In 1953, chemists Harold C. Urey and Stanley Miller conducted an experiment to do just this. Their goal was to simulate the early earth's atmospheric gasses from about 3.8 billion years ago (when life first formed). The atmosphere included: CO2, H2O, ammonia, methane and as well as electrical storms (lightning) and heat. They passed an electrical current through the gasses (to simulate lightning) and left the beaker over the weekend to "brew". Once they came back to check on it, they discovered a brown sticky film... which was various kinds of amino acids, and as you know amino acids make up proteins.

Once they discovered this everyone though that the answer to life was solved... There was a drastic halt in the science community. It's sad because in reality, this was not the answer to life, and in reality the experiment was actually quite useless and resulted in years of falling behind.

The Arecibo Message

This was a message that was sent out into the star cluster M13 in 1974. The message carried basic information about Earth and humanity, it was basically a "hello, we're here". Stephen Hawking was very upset about this, wishing that people would "never do this again." This is because he stated that if there are any other civilizations out there, they would be WAYYY more technologically advanced.

Irreducible Complexity

An argument that states that certain biological systems cannot have evolved by successful small modifications to pre-existing functional systems through natural selection. An example of this is the human eye, the organ is too complex to have had intermediate stages... it would've had to be all or nothing. This theory limits the chance of life on other planets because of how complex everything is.