Matteo Cantiello edited untitled.tex  almost 9 years ago

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There is on average one planet orbiting every star in the Universe. Our Galaxy (the Milky Way) is an immense disk of gas and stars with a diameter of about 100 000 light years, hosting about 100 billion stars and, therefore, also about 100 billion planets. Take a deep breath. Now, it turns out the Milky Way is just one of 100 billion galaxies that populate our Universe, a colossal expanding stretch of spacetime with an age of 13.7 billion years. The math is trivial: There are about 10~000~000~000~000~000~000~000 = $10^{22}$ planets out there. This number is extremely large. Apparently larger than the number of grains of sand found in every beach and every desert on Earth. But how many of these planets host life? And in particular, how many planets host intelligent life we might be able to communicate with?  We are thinking creatures living on a planet orbiting a pretty common star in a pretty common galaxy. Our home planet has been around for about 4.5 billion years, while the Universe is about 13.7 billion years old. We \href{https://www.authorea.com/10997}{just learned} that there are about 1~000~000~000~000~000~000~000 = $10^{21}$ planets potentially similar to the Earth in the cosmos, a number larger than the amount of \href{http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/09/17/161096233/which-is-greater-the-number-of-sand-grains-on-earth-or-stars-in-the-sky}{ grains of sand} found on every beach and every desert on Earth. \textbf{ Are we alone?}  But how many of these planets host life? And in particular, how many planets host intelligent life we might be able to communicate with?  Come next Wednesday   \textbf{\href{http://www.meetup.com/New-York-Open-Science-Meetup/}{New York Open Science Meetup}}  Please join us to keep posted about future events.  

P.s. There will be PIZZA.