The Drake Equation and the Uncertain Quest for Extraterrestrial Civilizations

To the point

The Drake equation suggests that the number of detectable civilizations in the galaxy depends on several highly uncertain factors, so the result could be as low as one or as high as millions, a view often associated with Carl Sagan, with exoplanet discoveries showing that planets are common.

Extraterrestrial life - Exoplanets, Habitability, Astrobiology | Britannica
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Extraterrestrial life - Exoplanets, Habitability, Astrobiology | Britannica

Extraterrestrial life - Exoplanets, Habitability, Astrobiology: For thousands of years humans have wondered whether they were alone in the universe or whether other worlds populated by more or less humanlike creatures might exist. In ancient times and throughout the Middle Ages, the common view was that Earth was the only “world” in the universe. Many mythologies populated the sky with divine beings, certainly a kind of extraterrestrial life. Some philosophers held that life was not unique to Earth. Metrodorus, an Epicurean in the 3rd and 4th centuries bce, argued that Since the Renaissance, fashionable belief has fluctuated. Practically all informed opinion in the late 18th century