These notes are from the lecture I give to the Astronomy 150 class when I teach it.
As such, they contain much more detail than I would expect a student of Astronomy 101 to
be concerned with. I think you will find much that is familiar (hopefully). What I would
like each of you to get from this lesson is the ability to do the following:
- Summarize the purpose of the Drake Equation and give your opinion of its value.
- Present an argument for why we believe life may be abundant in our galaxy.
- List 5 of the conditions that seem to be "special" for our Earth and thus conducive
for complex (even intelligent) life to appear.
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