Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Infographics

about education news missions galleries public events Follow JPL Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram All not signed in • login • sign up share this page: 8 Real World Science Facts About Saturn's Moon Enceladus What makes this small Saturnian moon a promising lead in our search for worlds where extraterrestrial life could exist? Design your own infographics with free JPL images and data! › view all resources Featured Infographics Pi in the Sky 3 Kim Orr MRO 10th Anniversary Jelly Solar Power Explorers Earth's carbon cycle is off balance 8 Real World Science Facts About Saturn's Moon Enceladus Greetings from your First Exoplanet Sea Level Rise Kepler-186 f - Where the Grass is Always Redder Relax on Kepler-16b - Where your shadow always has company Experience the Gravity of a Super Earth Where the Nightlife Never Ends Two Planet Profile - 51 Pegasi b Goddard At A Glance mhrybykk What is a Dwarf Planet? Ocean Worlds Mars Quick Facts Scott Hulme Opportunity's Marathon Journey Pi in the Sky 2 Anatomy of an Ion Engine

Future - Science & Environment - Drake equation: How many alien civilizations exist? Are we alone? It is a question that has occupied mankind for centuries. Today, we live in an age of exploration, where robots on Mars and planet-hunting telescopes are beginning to allow us to edge closer to an answer. While we wait to establish contact, one technique we can use back on Earth is an equation that American astronomer Frank Drake formulated in the 1960s to calculate the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations may exist in the Milky Way galaxy. It is not a rigorous equation, offering a wide range of possible answers. Instead it is more a tool used to help understand how many worlds might be out there and how those estimates change as missions like Kepler, a telescope that is currently searching for Earth-like planets, begin to discover more about our universe.