OUR galaxy may contain hundreds of thousands of life-bearing planets,
according to a new estimate. This could make the nearest inhabited twin of
planet Earth as close as a few hundred light years away.
In 1961, the American scientist Frank Drake suggested a simple formula for
calculating the number of technologically advanced civilisations in the Galaxy.
But the Drake equation contains a number of parameters that are very difficult
to estimate, such as the number of Earth-like planets around other stars and the
percentage of these planets that are likely to evolve life.
Now Siegfried Franck and a team of…
