STARSET_MirrorScientists say most likely number of contactable alien civilizations is 36
Experts say the work not only offers insights into the chances of life beyond Earth but could shed light on our own future and place in the cosmos.
专家表示，这项工作不仅提供了对地球以外生命存在机会的洞察，而且可以为我们自己的未来和在宇宙中的位置提供启示
“I think it is extremely important and exciting because for the first time we really have an estimate for this number of active intelligent, communicating civilizations that we potentially could contact and find out there is other life in the universe – something that has been a question for thousands of years and is still not answered,” said Christopher Conselice, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham and a co-author of the research.
“我认为这是极其重要和令人兴奋的，因为我们第一次真正有了对活跃的智能、交流文明数量的估计，我们有可能接触到这些文明，并发现宇宙中还有其他生命存在——这是一个几千年来一直存在的问题，至今仍未得到答案。”诺丁汉大学天体物理学教授、这项研究的合著者克里斯托弗·康塞利斯说
In 1961 the astronomer Frank Drake proposed what became known as the Drake equation, setting out seven factors that would need to be known to come up with an estimate for the number of intelligent civilizations out there. These factors ranged from the the average number of stars that form each year in the galaxy through to the timespan over which a civilization would be expected to be sending out detectable signals.
1961年，天文学家弗兰克·德雷克提出了后来被称为德雷克方程的公式，列出7个需要知道的因素，才能估算出一个地方的智慧文明的数量。这些因素包括银河系中每年形成的恒星的平均数量和一个文明将发出可探测信号的时间跨度。
Read more at The Guardian
翻译：运营人员
