Extraterrestrial Intelligence

  Extraterrestrial life, commonly referred to as "aliens," has been a subject of human fascination and speculation for centuries. Scientific inquiries into the possibility of extraterrestrial life primarily focus on astrobiology, which studies life's origin, evolution, and potential existence outside of Earth. This review will outline some of the primary scientific research efforts in this area, as well as address the evidence (or lack thereof) for extraterrestrial presence. 1. The Drake Equation Proposed by Frank Drake in 1961, the Drake Equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. Although it is more of a framework than an exact tool, it takes into consideration factors like: The rate of star formation The fraction of those stars with planetary systems The number of planets that could potentially support life The fraction on which life appears The fraction that develops