It is perhaps these prophetic words of Goddard that keeps many scientists engaged in what can be called an impossible task of finding answer to an elusive question, Are we alone in the universe? And one of the early astronomers who can be credited for trying to answer this question was Frank Drake. Frank Donald Drake, an astronomer who has been immortalised by an equation named after him - Drakes Equation - which he had advocated to initiate a dialog among ten astronomers who had gathered in a conference at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia in 1961, died earlier this month on September 2 at the age of 92.
The Drake Equation is now considered as one of the most famous equation / formula in scientific history. This formula was advocated by Drake early in his career - November 1961- soliciting a brain storming discussion with the ten best brains, including Carl Sagan, who had gathered, to discuss on an elusive question ; Are we alone in the universe? This meeting goes down in history as the first scientific meeting, which was devoted to SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). Frank Drake wrote an equation on the blackboard that took the difficult question of estimating the number of civilizations in the Galaxy and broke it down into a series of smaller, more manageable questions. Ever since, both astronomers and students have used Drake equation as a means of approaching the most challenging question: Are we alone in the universe?
Speaking of this question, as per our understanding - with all the powerful scientific and technological tools in our arsenal - our Earth seems to be unique and perhaps it is the only place in the universe, which harbours biological life, as we know it today. The uniqueness of our planet reminds us of that famous book with that poetic out look for our earth - 'Pale Blue Dot' - written by Carl Sagan. Incidentally Carl Sagan was one of the ten astronomers in whose presence Drake wrote his famous equation on the black board. Sagan’s book was inspired by a pale blue dot image taken, at Sagan's suggestion, by Voyager 1 on 14 February 1990.
In the unending expanse of our ever expanding universe, which harbours billions and billions of galaxies, including our very own Milky Way Galaxy, and each galaxy birthing billions of stars that include our very own life giving and life sustaining star - the Sun - which is just one among those billions of stars that make up our 'Akash Ganga' galaxy, our Sun, as we know it today, is perhaps the only known star in the universe, which cradles our life sustaining planet Earth, where life in its myriad forms and unending diversity has evolved on our pale blue planet. But then the pale blue dot also reminds us of how tiny we in the vast expanse of our cosmos, which necessarily leads to that curiosity of question, are we alone. This question has haunted astronomers and biologists for long and the beginning to guesstimate this preposterous question started with what now has become universal, the Drakes equation and with this equation Frank Donal Drake become synonymous with SETI, which has inspired many movies including the ones made in Bollywood - Hrithik starter Koi Mil Gaya.
Frank Donald Drake was born in Chicago on May 28, 1930, the oldest of three children. His father, Richard, was a chemical engineer, and his mother, Winnifred (Thompson) Drake, was a music teacher. Drake became excited about the possibility of extraterrestrial life as a child since he studied astronomy in school. He was also interested in chemistry and electronics. After his schooling he enrolled at the Cornell University as an undergraduate and a participant in the Navy’s Reserve Office Training Corps. This entailed that Drake had to take up a naval assignment post his graduation with a bachelor's degree in engineering physics, which he completed in 1952. On completing his graduation, Drake was posted to the U.S.S. Albany where he was assigned the task of attending to the ship’s electronics. He served in the navy for three years as the electronics officer on the Navy cruiser - U.S.S. Albany,
On completion of his assignment with the navy Drake joined the prestigious Harvard’s graduate school from where he obtained his master’s degree and a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1958. All through this period his interest in electronics served him well and further attracted him to radio astronomy, a relatively new subject. Around this time, in 1958, there was a old Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory in the Green Bank, which was hardly known. However, in order to start some research at the fledging observatory, the Director of the observatory decided to purchase a radio telescope “kit” from the Blaw-Knox Corporation. This was to be a make shift arrangement which would pave the way for building a larger antenna, based on some early research. Drake joined this project and a year later, the assembled telescope, with its 85 foot reflector, was outfitted for observations and Drake began his research program with this telescope. This was the time when Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory, was transformed into the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) a newly constituted body. Drake began using radio telescopes to listen for signals from nearby stars. He identified two near by stars for his early examination and focused his attention on Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani, each about a dozen light years away. This project was dubbed Project Ozma and it is considered as the first attempt under project SETI.
For several weeks Drake alternately pointed the telescope at these two stars aiming to receive some signals from his commercial receiver, which was designed for shortwave listening. He chose to look at ‘frequencies adjacent to the radio emission line (1420 MHz) of neutral hydrogen, on the grounds that this naturally produced line would be known to any technically proficient civilization, and therefore would serve as a marker for the guidance of societies who might wish to make contact’. Incidentally unknown to Drake, a paper was published in 1959 by two Cornell University physicists who had postulated that anyone with technology that was at least as advanced as our own could send detectable radio signals.
The project to detect possible signals from the two near by stars by Drake became the first, modern SETI experiment, which was named Project Ozma. Although Drake was not successful in detecting any extraterrestrial signals, this project caught the attention of astronomers from across the world, including the astronomers at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The NAS suggested to the Director NRAO to task Drake with organising a small conference to brain storm on the possibility of trying to find evidence of ‘intelligence’ in the cosmos. This resulted in a group of about ten prominent scientists and engineers who gathered for attending this conference in 1961 in Green Bank. In order to kick start the brain storming discussion in this conference, Drake came out with an idea and wrote a simple equation, consisting of seven constant terms whose product would be an estimated number of galactic societies, who perhaps could produce signals that could be received and interpreted by their observations. This formulation has become known as the Drake Equation. Incidentally many people say that this equation is cited as the second most-famous equation in science (after Einstein’s E=mc2).
Incidentally the worlds prestigious space agency NASA too joined in the early efforts of SETI project in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some of the projects which NASA supported as a part of the SETI project included Project Orion, the Microwave Observing Project, the High Resolution Microwave Survey, and Toward Other Planetary Systems. However, since the Congress was not keen on supporting this project the SETI program was cancelled by NASA in 1993. By then the interest in SETI and aliens among the masses had only increased courtesy films like the Star Wars and many more.
Before the closure of the SETI project by NASA, Drake was also involved in co-designing the Pioneer Plaque with the father daughter duo of Carl Sagan. This plaque was the first physical message, which was sent into the space. It was designed in such a way that the underpinnings of the message may be interrupted by any of the scientifically advanced extraterrestrial life forms, out there in the universe. Drake was also involved in writing the first interstellar message which was transmitted deliberately from the Earth for some intelligence out there in the universe to intercept it.
Although NASA announced the official closure of the SETI project the interest in this project did not come down and the SETI project is continuing as a private entity in California even today. Drake had became the president of the SETI Institute after its founding in 1984. Drake He continued to promote SETI, even after his official retirement in 2010 at the age of eighty. During his retirement when asked whether he will be associate with the SETI project, Drake said, “I’m never going to retire from SETI.” Drake has influenced a generation of young astronomers and students who have now become SETI practitioners.
Although in his life time - Drakes lifetime - there have been no scientific evidence whatsoever, which points to the existence of ET life, but then the efforts of SETI scientists may someday deliver that seemingly improbable news that the ‘Pale Blue Dot’ may have company some where in the universe true to the prophetic words of Robert Goddard ‘It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
Rest in peace Frank Donald Drake.
Images courtesy : Wiki Commons and Project SETI.
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