• Question: Do aliens exist

    Asked by 947smap48 to Sheila, Gary, Piyush on 7 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by 654smap44.
    • Photo: Sheila Castilho

      Sheila Castilho answered on 7 Nov 2018:


      I’m pretty sure some kind of life out there exists. Maybe not as developed as humans but some kind of life it is very likely to exist. There are loads of planets out there (like million!) and some of them are likely to have the potential for supporting life!

    • Photo: Gary Munnelly

      Gary Munnelly answered on 7 Nov 2018: last edited 7 Nov 2018 4:41 pm


      There is this thing called the Drake equation which guesses the number of civilizations which exist our galaxy, assuming certain properties of the galaxy. It’s a long equation, but it is pretty simple. You just need to do some multiplication.

      According to Drake’s original formulation of the equation, there is a possibility that there are 9 other civilizations in our galaxy which are capable of broadcasting into space. But that’s only a very rough guess, and depending on how you play with the arguments of the equation, you can get wildly differing results. More conservative people have computed only a very small probability that there is intelligent life on other planets (about one millionth of a percent chance).

      You can play with an interactive version of the Drake equation here:
      https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-drake-equation/

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