Lecture 43: Life in the Universe, Part I

Are we alone in the Universe? This is the first part of a 2-part lecture that will explore the question of life and the Universe. We will look at the conditions needed for life, and address the question of how often we expect those conditions to be satisfied in our own Galaxy. In this part, we introduce the Drake Equation and make some basic estimates. To be honest, it was supposed to be one lecture, but I ran over time and ran into the bell. Oops! Very embarrasing. Tomorrow's lecture will finish up our discussion of life in the Universe, and then wrap up Astronomy 162 for the quarter. Recorded 2006 March 9 in 1008 Evans Laboratory on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.