Archive

Archive for the ‘Life in the universe’ Category

Ephemeris: 08/21/2026 – What are the chances of detecting another civilization in the galaxy?

August 21, 2026 Comments off

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Friday, August 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 46 minutes, setting at 8:38, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:53. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 12:56 tomorrow morning.

At the first conference for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence held at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank,West Virginia, astronomer Frank Drake presented an equation on the chances for the the number of civilizations we would be capable of detecting with radio telescopes in the Galaxy. The equation had seven factors such as the average rate of star formation in the Milky Way. The fraction of those that had planets in the habitrable zone, the fraction of those in the habitable zone that actually had developed life and thae fraction of those that have intelligent life and so on. It’s called the Drake equation. And the values have only been guessed at, but there could be many.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

The Drake Equation

N: = R* x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc x L

Meaning of the factors of the drake equation: N: The number of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable. R* The rate of formation of stars suitable for the development of intelligent life (number per year). fp The fraction of those stars with planetary systems. ne The number of planets, per solar system, with an environment suitable for life. fl The fraction of suitable planets on which life actually appears. fi The fraction of life bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges. fc The fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that produces detectable signs of their existence. L The average length of time such civilizations produce such signs (years).
From the SETI Institute where there’s more information about the Drake Equation.
Frank Drake (1930-2022) in the 1960s. By NRAO/AUI/NSF – https://public.nrao.edu/gallery/frank-drake/, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=169654646

Categories: Astronomical History, Ephemeris Program, Life in the universe Tags: ,

Ephemeris: 08/20/2026 – Fermi’s Paradox

August 20, 2026 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, August 20th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 8:40, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:52. The Moon, 1 day past first quarter, will set at 12:11 tomorrow morning.

It is said that during lunch one day in 1950 in Los Alamos New Mexico, atomic scientist Enrico Fermi asked this question: Where is everybody? Meaning why haven’t we seen any aliens from the rest of the universe? He posited that there are many stars older than the sun by billions of years, so there could be many civilizations in the Milky Way. There is sufficient time, even traveling less than the speed of light, that a single civilization would have populated the entire Milky Way Galaxy in millions of years, a short time compared to the age of the Universe. The question is known as Fermi’s Paradox. So far the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, has found nothing, though in the vast scheme of things, we’ve just started.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Enrico Fermi, Italian-American physicist, received the 1938 Nobel Prize in physics for identifying new elements and discovering nuclear reactions by his method of nuclear irradiation and bombardment. He was born in Rome, Italy, on September 29, 1901, and died in Chicago, Illinois, on November 28, 1954.
Enrico Fermi, Italian-American physicist, received the 1938 Nobel Prize in physics for identifying new elements and discovering nuclear reactions by his method of nuclear irradiation and bombardment. He was born in Rome, Italy, on September 29, 1901, and died in Chicago, Illinois, on November 28, 1954. Source: Wikipedia.

Categories: Ephemeris Program, Life in the universe, Unexplained

Ephemeris: 03/27/2026 – Finding life out there

March 27, 2026 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Friday, March 27th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 8:04, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:30. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 5:39 tomorrow morning.

I have often been asked what I thought about life existing in the universe… besides the Earth of course. My answer is yes, I think there is life out there in the universe. There are more galaxies, stars and planets than we can possibly count, though when looking at exoplanets, we’re not finding much in the way of habitable planets. We have one example of life: the Earth and that’s what we look for. Our detection methods are too crude to be able to detect anything as small as the earth unless it’s orbiting a small red dwarf star. We seem to find a lot of large planets, that orbit extremely close to their stars because our detection methods depend on what they do to either block the light of a star or affect it gravitationally. The earth is almost too small to do either.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EST, UT – 5 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

The Kepler-62 stellar system, one of thousands of exoplanetary systems found in the last 31 years, These planets were discovered by the transit method, by passing in front of their star. The star itself is smaller and somewhat dimmer than the Sun, so the habitable zone is closer in. The planets are designated by lower case letters in order of their discovery. The time between transits determines their orbital distance, and the amount they decrease the star's light, their size. The two planets in the habitable zone, e and f, are considered super-earth's. They may or may not be rocky, depending on their density, which is related to their mass, which the transit method doesn't detect.
The Kepler-62 stellar system, one of thousands of exoplanetary systems found in the last 31 years, These planets were discovered by the transit method, by passing in front of their star. The star itself is smaller and somewhat dimmer than the Sun, so the habitable zone is closer in. The planets are designated by lower case letters in order of their discovery. The time between transits determines their orbital distance, and the amount they decrease the star’s light, their size. The two planets in the habitable zone, e and f, are considered super-earth’s. They may or may not be rocky, depending on their density, which is related to their mass, which the transit method doesn’t detect. Credit: JPL/NASA.
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Life in the universe Tags: ,

Ephemeris: 10/10/2025 – Could radio noisy galaxies harbor many advanced civilizations?

October 10, 2025 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Friday, October 10th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 7:06, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:53. The Moon, 3 days before last quarter, will rise at 9:00 this evening.

I ran across an article on the Universe Today website a few days ago about galaxies with high radio emissions, that could be home to many advanced civilizations. Some galaxies do emit a lot of radio emissions, mainly because they have a black hole in the center that it was, in the past, active throwing out material from the galaxy that didn’t make it into the black hole. But this would be emissions from the actual disk of the Galaxy, inside which would be the cacophony of many advanced civilizations and their normal transmissions of their version of I Love Lucy. When combined, it enhances the general radio noise, so it can be detected as being out of ordinary. And there are a few galaxies like that. It would make the universe less lonely.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Nearby Galaxy M33 in the constellation of Triangulum is 2.7 to 3 million light years away.
Nearby Galaxy M33 in the constellation of Triangulum is 2.7 to 3 million light years away, which makes it one of the closest galaxies to our Milky Way. It is about 70% the size of our Milky Way Galaxy. I don’t know the radio noisy status of this galaxy, but I needed a beautiful picture of a galaxy for this article. Credit: Daniel Dall’Olmo, member of the GTAS.

Here’s a link to the Universe Today article: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/galaxies-with-high-radio-emissions-could-be-home-to-many-advanced-civilizations

Categories: Ephemeris Program, Galaxies, Life in the universe Tags: