If you’re ever studied astronomy, you’ve probably been exposed to something called the Drake equation.
One side of the equation posits the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which it might be possible to communicate. The other side gives all the variables that add up to that number, including the average rate of star formation, the number of planets around those stars that have developed intelligent life and the ability to send radio signals.
“Depending on how you calculate it, the answer can be none, or it can be a billion,” said theoretical cosmologist Katie Mack, author of the recent book “The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking).”
Astrophysicist Frank Drake, who formulated the equation way back in 1961, said it’s really a way of showing “all the things you needed to know to predict how hard it’s going to be to detect extraterrestrial life.”
Mack put it more directly: “The point of the equation is really to show how little we know.”
If it’s hard for professional scientists to run the numbers, it’s harder still for us mere-mortal Earthlings to do the work.
That’s where the imagination comes in. So for generations we’ve been putting our creative minds to work in guessing if extraterrestrials exist, what they might look like and how we’ve going to greet them and they us, whether with a sign of peace or a ray gun.
Legends & Lore 