Radio telescopes look further and further into the universe and beyond, hoping to find planets like ours. Planets on which beings like us could live. Radio waves are sent from Earth to everywhere in hopes of a reply. There is no reply; the silence of space is maddening.
Astronomers and astrophysicists find more and more planets where life can exist, but there is no evidence that intelligent life does exist. It’s the Fermi Paradox, which briefly stated is: Where is everybody?
They must be there. The Drake Equation tries to quantify the number of advanced civilizations just in our own galaxy. To simplify, it's the number of stars in the galaxy....
- multiplied by the fraction that form planets...
- multiplied by the average number of planets in the habitable zone...
- multiplied by the fraction of these that give birth to life in some form......
- multiplied by these that develop intelligence......
- multiplied by the fraction of these that produce interstellar communications...
- multiplied by the fraction of the planet's lifetime during which such civilizations survive.
