Death Stars of the Rosette Nebula

[Nyrath]

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/10/death-stars-of-the-rosette-nebula.html


We've known for a while that large astronomical events can spell bad news for life: supernovae unleash unimaginable levels radiation, asteroids can kick up climate-killing clouds, and black holes can suck things out of existence altogether. Now it seems that simply wandering too close to big star can evaporate a planet before it even forms.

Very spooky. The planet-less stars are haunted by the ghosts of planets that died aborning.

[L. Marcus]

... Just boiling away into the Great Nothing ...

[Sundog]

It seems like every new discovery makes the first variable in the Drake Equation smaller and smaller...

[Kristopher]

It seems like every new discovery makes the first variable in the Drake Equation smaller and smaller...

Isn't the first variable the rate of star formation?


The Drake equation states that:

N = R* x fp x ne x fℓ x fi x fc x L

where:

N is the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible;

and

R* is the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy
fp is the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fℓ is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
fi is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc is the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L is the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.[2]

In terms of what we know, the values of L, fc, fi, and fℓ, are completely unknown and any value is a SWAG.

ne and fp, we're just starting to figure out

R* is the only one for which we have any kind of accuracy

[Sundog]

Sorry, you're correct, of course. I meant the THIRD variable.