New Drake Equation To Quantify Habitability

New Drake Equation To Quantify Habitability

www.sciencedaily.com

Researchers from the Open University are laying the groundwork for a new equation that could mathematically quantify a habitat’s potential for hosting life, in a similar way to how the Drake equation estimates the number of intelligent extraterrestrial civilisations in the Milky Way.

Dr Axel Hagermann will be proposing a method to find this ‘habitability index’ at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany on Thursday 17 September

(visit the link for the full news article)

An explanation of the original Drake equation can be found here.

This new equation will hopefully be able to give us a measure of the 'habitability' of a planet, and by creating such an index we could one day be able to compare these worlds.

Sounds like a huge task, I just hope they can come up with a suitable equation.

www.sciencedaily.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 21-9-2009 by kiwifoot]

“There may be good reasons why such a habitability index is not going to work and, with so many variables to consider, it is not going to be an easy task to develop. However, this kind of index has the potential to be an invaluable tool as we begin to understand more about the conditions needed for life to evolve and we find more locations in our Solar System and beyond that might be habitable,” said Dr Hagermann.

In the online article it says this.

But what i've always thought, evolution, is A-Okay with me, if not more so.

Although, life here, may not need the same premise, and something 'else' can occur!

[edit on 21-9-2009 by Republican08]

reply to post by Republican08


We have quite a narrow vision of what life 'is', and the conditions that are required for life to thrive.

Who says that life must recolve around H20 and C, I hope that life on other palnets is varied and bizarre to our eyes, and has evolved using different chemical templates to deal with differing environments to Earth.

Thanks for the vid mate, nice job.

Kiwifoot

I always felt the original Drake's Equation was a little basic.

The neccessities for life in the universe will never really be calculated until we eliminate or confirm some of the possibilities.....

Is it neccessary for a planet to have a moon, a similar gravity, be a similar distance from a single sun, what chemicals and elements need to be present etc, etc, etc.....

Gotta love Mr Sagan though and all his fantastic and inspirational perspectives. His programme "Cosmos" certainly changed how this bundle of carbon and water sees things.

I can't wait to hear more about this new equation.

Cheers for the thread.

[edit on 21/9/2009 by nerbot]

Dartboard science with more numbers on the board... Great!

The Drake Equation is only workable if we have the intelligence/knowledge to enter correct numbers into the string of variables. Without that ability the resulting figure is completely meaningless .

IRM

Nothing against you or your thread, OP, but the Drake Equation is garbage, and is completely unverifiable.

Anybody who is hoping to write a new version of garbage, is probably going to write trash.

Hope this thread works out an all, but I don't put any hope or faith in anyone who puts scientific value in the Drake Equation.

Originally posted by BaronVonGodzilla
Nothing against you or your thread, OP, but the Drake Equation is garbage, and is completely unverifiable.

Anybody who is hoping to write a new version of garbage, is probably going to write trash.

Hope this thread works out an all, but I don't put any hope or faith in anyone who puts scientific value in the Drake Equation.

No offence taken mate don't worry!

But I think you have a point, but that is the whole reason for these guys trying to come up with new equations allowing an index of habitability to be created.

The Drake Equation is too generalised and open to error, and the values put into the equation are difficult to obtain correctly.

That's why these gentlemen propose a new method, creating an equation using the four measures for habitability that will give each planet a value, so that they can be compared.

I too have my doubts, but as you can see, we both agree the Drake Equation is not a suitable method for determining 'N'.