English

The Drake Equation as a Function of Spectral Type and Time

Popular Physics 2017-12-25 v1 Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Abstract

This chapter draws upon astronomical observations and modeling to constrain the prevalence of communicative civilizations in the galaxy. We discuss the dependence of the Drake equation parameters on the spectral type of the host star and the time since the galaxy formed, which allow us to examine trajectories for the emergence of communicative civilizations over the history of the galaxy. We suggest that the maximum lifetime of communicative civilizations depends on the spectral type of the host star, which implies that F- and G-dwarf stars are the best places to search for signs of technological intelligence today.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1705.07816,
  title  = {The Drake Equation as a Function of Spectral Type and Time},
  author = {Jacob Haqq-Misra and Ravi Kumar Kopparapu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.07816},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

To be published in Habitability of the Universe Before Earth, R. Gordon and A. Sharov (Eds.), Elsevier