Carl Sagan on radio astronomy & the Drake Equation

Radio Astronomy & the Drake Equation. How many technically advanced civilzations are possible in the Universe? The Drake Equation can tell us.

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• Sagan
• Cosmos
• Universe
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• Earth
• Space
• Astronomy
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[OldSchoolSkill]

This presentation of the Drake equation, from the Cosmos series, is the best evidence for the possibility of alien life.

Notice: this is based only upon the number of stars in our galaxy; 400 billion.

This was done before the Hubble discovered that there are hundreds of billions of GALAXIES throughout the universe.

Statistically, alien life is virtually a guaranteed proposition. Seeing aliens on Earth is highly unlikely though because of vast distances and the limitations of light-speed.

[JezeroCraterDweller]

Carl Sagan's ability to take what we know and make it so that everyone has a chance to see and hear it was his greatest gift.

I want to see some of the others that inhabit this universe!

[TheDan337]

@OldSchoolSkill You’re a little confused: Thomas Wright correctly deduced that some “nebulae” might be seperate collections of stars in 1750. From 1912, much analysis of spectrographic data and nova magnitudes by Vesto Slipher, Heber Curtis, Ernst Öpik and others culminated in a consensus with the presentation in 1925 of a paper by Edwin Hubble (after whom “the Hubble” telescope, to which you refer, was named). By 1980, Sagan was quite aware of the existence of galaxies outside our own.

[RJL738]

This begs the question of wether a new kind of equation could be invented. We know of simple equations like 3x9*3=9 or something like that and we know of more advanced equations that don't contain one line but several lines under them. Like 7.3x10^18 with a divide line under and a greek letter or another notation and so on stacked under each other. These thus far would be one and two dimentional equations. Why add a third axis and have a layer behind the 2D equation. A 3 dimentional equation.

[OldSchoolSkill]

@X180SE

Agreed, 100%.

[X180SE]

@OldSchoolSkill Although the odds for life elsewhere seem like a no-brainer, the chance of a simple deck of cards being spontaneously shuffled back into the perfect order before it was unwrapped is 1 in 10 to the 68th power. Life similar to bacteria may be rare, intelligent life magnitudes rarer.

[X180SE]

@OldSchoolSkill It is a mischaracterization to state that, “the Hubble [telescope] discovered that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies throughout the universe.” Both Drake, at the time he postulated his hypothesis, & Sagan, at the time he produced Cosmos, knew there were innumerable galaxies beyond our own. The Hubble just gave us much clearer vision to examine them.

[ElysianFields100]

There may well be an infinite number of unknown universes out there. Ancient universes billions of years in advance to our own. Surely (with this bare assertion) they have the ways & means of spanning the huge oceans of time and space.

Entertaining this thought, didn't the ancient ones paint & tell stories of such rumors (the ones we mock & belittle) of beings coming down from above? The same heavenly beings the religious ones call- even today, gods.

I use to laugh at Erik Von Daniken.

[OldSchoolSkill]

@anthony68drake True, if you believe what you are fed my the media. We must consider the possibility that media messages regarding "Koran thumpers" could be biased, at the very least.

At worst, our Western perceptions of Muslims could be heavily propagandized for the purposes of justifying wars and stealing oil. Also, fear-instigating editorials of Muslims is greater during elections, when the subject is used as a "wedge-issue". It is this type of xenophobia that Carl Sagan fought.

[OldSchoolSkill]

@Uber400s No problem! Sometimes the character limit makes conversations so terse as to seem confrontational.

[Uber400s]

@OldSchoolSkill Well your point is much more logical. I hope you don't think I was trying to cause any problems here.