# 10% of stars support life - claim



## Brian G Turner (Jan 4, 2004)

Aussie researchers claim that 1 in 10 stars in our galaxy could support life, and are involved in a close study of the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ):

excerpt:



> One tenth of the stars in our galaxy might provide the right conditions to support complex life, according to a new analysis by Australian researchers. And most of these stars are on average one billion years older than the Sun, allowing much more time, in theory, for any life to evolve.
> 
> The concept of a "galactic habitable zone" (GHZ) for the Milky Way was first proposed in 2001. Now Charles Lineweaver of the University of New South Wales and colleagues have defined a life-friendly GHZ using a detailed model of the evolution of the Milky Way to map the distribution in space and time of four major factors thought essential for complex life.
> 
> ...


Attachment: artist's image of our Milky Way from a non-earth perspective


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Jan 5, 2004)

That's interesting - do you have a link? 

Here is something related: http://www.seti-inst.edu/science/drake-bg.html

It's about Drake's Equation, developed to to focus on the factors which determine how many intelligent, communicating civilizations there may be in our galaxy.


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## Brian G Turner (Jan 5, 2004)

Whopps - my bad!

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994525


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## littlemissattitude (Jan 5, 2004)

knivesout said:
			
		

> That's interesting - do you have a link?
> 
> Here is something related: http://www.seti-inst.edu/science/drake-bg.html
> 
> It's about Drake's Equation, developed to to focus on the factors which determine how many intelligent, communicating civilizations there may be in our galaxy.


The think I've always found intersting about the Drake Equation is that it can be used to support either a very optimistic view of how many possible intelligent civilizations there are in the galaxy or a very pessimistic view, depending on the assumptions made and which numbers are plugged into the equation.  I've heard it used to support the idea of many intelligent civilizations.  I've also heard it used to support the argument that we're it in the universe (much less the galaxy) as far as intelligent civilizations go.


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## Allyn (Jan 6, 2004)

oooh, hadn't heard about this one yet 

It's a good debate, however, 10% is a bit high.

We have to remember that the milky way has billions of stars, and there are billions of galaxies out there also, in this universe.

Is there other intelligent life out there?  Yes
Will we ever see it, in our lifetimes, in earths lifetime?  Probably not

why?  because there are many light years between us and the nearest star, let alone to the rest of the stars.  A civilisation wouldn't travel hundreds of thousands of light years to get here, even if they could travel 1000x the speed of light.

So basically, we are alone, yet we aren't.


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Jan 7, 2004)

littlemissattitude said:
			
		

> The think I've always found intersting about the Drake Equation is that it can be used to support either a very optimistic view of how many possible intelligent civilizations there are in the galaxy or a very pessimistic view, depending on the assumptions made and which numbers are plugged into the equation. I've heard it used to support the idea of many intelligent civilizations. I've also heard it used to support the argument that we're it in the universe (much less the galaxy) as far as intelligent civilizations go.


That reminds me, there is an interesting short story by Ian R MacLeod called 'New light on the Drake equation' in the last Gardener Dozois anthology. it's about a scientist who has dedicated his life to an increasingly futile SETI project, a sort of meditation on the dreams that drive us, futile though they may seem.


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## littlemissattitude (Jan 7, 2004)

knivesout said:
			
		

> That reminds me, there is an interesting short story by Ian R MacLeod called 'New light on the Drake equation' in the last Gardener Dozois anthology. it's about a scientist who has dedicated his life to an increasingly futile SETI project, a sort of meditation on the dreams that drive us, futile though they may seem.


Sounds interesting.  I'll have to look for it.


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