Carl Sagan gave an interesting lecture on “The Age of Exploration”. Throughout the lecture, he talked about the Earth being at the center of the universe and how that statement has evolved over time. He brought up many claims with reasoning on various points within the Drake equation. One term in the equation that he brings up is fp which is the fraction of stars with planetary systems. He discusses the formation of planets and how gas and dust forms around stars, and then he goes on to discuss Barnard’s star and how that star gave hope to have planets. Yet, at the time they could not discover any planets, so they came to the conclusion that there is no other life that is intelligent out there. I believe that over time, scientists will continue to discover new planetary systems within stars. It may take millions of years, but I believe there is more out there that is waiting to be discovered.
However, I do not know if these planets will have life or even intelligent life on them or not. They may be located in inhabitable zones where life cannot even exist. This deals with the terms fl and fi in the Drake equation. He continues to talk about the term, fi, when he compares human lives to the lives of animals. He discusses how we are each made differently and how we each possess traits that others do not have. I agree with his argument on this topic. I believe that everything was created for a purpose, and the intelligent life that has been put on this planet has a reason. Humans have a different purpose than animals do.
That was the way that we were made, and although we do have some similarities that have been discovered, we are different. Towards the end of his lecture, Sagan discusses another term in the Drake equation, fc. This deals with civilizations developing technology that gives off detectable signs of existence. He knows that they have not found any detection of life at this point, but he has a great deal of optimism about exploring to find something detectable in the future. I agree with the perspective about finding detectable civilizations. Some people may argue that nothing is ever going to be found, but there are years of more research and technological development to help lead us to answers.
127 our experts are availableright now
Personally, I am surprised by how much scientists knew nearly a quarter century ago and I am also not surprised. I am surprised because this lecture was given years before I was born. Technological resources were not available for use because a lot of them that we use today were not invented at this time. Technology was also not as advanced back then as it is now, so it is incredible to learn about all of the discoveries that were made in a time where it would have been more difficult to find results. On the other hand, what they knew does not surprise me because ancient astronomers spend a great deal of time observing the sky. Exploration of the universe has been going on for centuries so one might think that more discovery could have been taking place over this time.
I would enjoy sitting down with Carl Sagan to discuss the discoveries made in these 22 years since his death. I feel that he would be amazed to learn about all the information that has been found, but I also feel like he knew in his lecture that scientists were on the verge of discovering very important concepts about our universe. I believe the first thing that I would like to discuss with him is the recent detection of a planet around Barnard’s star. To me, he seemed like he was not done looking into what was around this star and that this would be a very exciting topic to discuss. The new exoplanets that NASA is finding would also be a great topic of discussion.
I would also like to talk with him about all the progress that has been made concerning habitable zones with planets to find where there could be evidence of intelligent life and how scientists are going about detecting it. It would also be very interesting to discuss with him what all progress has been made on the Mars discoveries recently. Although this is not exploration of new planets, it would be neat to be able to tell him about the new rover landing and what all NASA is doing to search for evidence of life on Mars. I also believe that he would give valuable ideas and a different point of view that could spark new ideas. If I had the opportunity to speak with Carl Sagan, I know that conversation would be very inspiring and informative.
