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To: mnehrling
Not sure about this story but there are aprox. 125 billion galaxies, each of these galaxies have about 100-200 billion stars each. Ours alone, The Milky Way, has 200 billion stars.

If each of these stars only had 1 planet orbiting them, there would be aprox. 40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets. If anyone thinks we are the only intelligent life out of all these planets, well let's just say their egotistical rating is way off the scale or they have the IQ of an ameba.

24 posted on 01/24/2008 9:10:26 AM PST by Post-Neolithic (Money only makes Communists rich Communists)
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To: Post-Neolithic
...If each of these stars only had 1 planet orbiting them, there would be aprox. 40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets.

To me, that makes it a mathematical certainty.

26 posted on 01/24/2008 9:16:27 AM PST by Restore (see the Cool Aviation Blog at http://coolaviation.blogspot.com/)
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To: Post-Neolithic

If there were aliens, wouldn’t it be in the bible?


28 posted on 01/24/2008 9:22:21 AM PST by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: Post-Neolithic

Why would you think that EACH star would have a planet orbiting it?

As for those stars outside the solar system where planets HAVE been found, the vast majority of the planets have been massive gas giants. Not too compatible with life in anything resembling humanoid form.


38 posted on 01/24/2008 9:49:58 AM PST by FreedomOfExpression (Dime: a dollar with all the taxes taken out.)
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To: Post-Neolithic
If anyone thinks we are the only intelligent life out of all these planets, well let's just say their egotistical rating is way off the scale or they have the IQ of an ameba.

It’s amoeba.

40 posted on 01/24/2008 9:54:18 AM PST by FreedomOfExpression (Dime: a dollar with all the taxes taken out.)
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To: Post-Neolithic
Isn't that a variation of the Drake equation?

N = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL

The equation can really be looked at as a number of questions:

N* represents the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy

Question: How many stars are in the Milky Way Galaxy?

Answer: Current estimates are 100 billion.

fp is the fraction of stars that have planets around them

Question: What percentage of stars have planetary systems?

Answer: Current estimates range from 20% to 50%.

ne is the number of planets per star that are capable of sustaining life

Question: For each star that does have a planetary system, how many planets are capable of sustaining life?

Answer: Current estimates range from 1 to 5.

fl is the fraction of planets in ne where life evolves

Question: On what percentage of the planets that are capable of sustaining life does life actually evolve?

Answer: Current estimates range from 100% (where life can evolve it will) down to close to 0%.

fi is the fraction of fl where intelligent life evolves

Question: On the planets where life does evolve, what percentage evolves intelligent life?

Answer: Estimates range from 100% (intelligence is such a survival advantage that it will certainly evolve) down to near 0%.

fc is the fraction of fi that communicate Question: What percentage of intelligent races have the means and the desire to communicate? Answer: 10% to 20%

fL is fraction of the planet's life during which the communicating civilizations live

Question: For each civilization that does communicate, for what fraction of the planet's life does the civilization survive?

Answer: This is the toughest of the questions. If we take Earth as an example, the expected lifetime of our Sun and the Earth is roughly 10 billion years. So far we've been communicating with radio waves for less than 100 years. How long will our civilization survive? Will we destroy ourselves in a few years like some predict or will we overcome our problems and survive for millennia? If we were destroyed tomorrow the answer to this question would be 1/100,000,000th. If we survive for 10,000 years the answer will be 1/1,000,000th.

When all of these variables are multiplied together when come up with:

N, the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy.

287 posted on 02/25/2008 9:49:21 PM PST by BreezyDog
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