Drake equation

The Drake equation is a way of trying to figure out how many alien civilizations there might be out there in the universe. It was made by a man named Dr. Frank Drake in the 1960s and it's named after him. To use the Drake equation, you need to know a few things about the universe. First, you need to know how many stars there are in the universe (N). Next, you need to know how many of those stars have planets around them that could possibly support life (fp). Then, you need to know what percentage of those planets actually have life on them (ne). Then, you need to know what percentage of those have intelligent life (fl). Finally, you need to figure out what percentage of those intelligent civilizations are actually sending out messages we could detect (fi). Once you have all those numbers, you can plug them into the Drake equation and it will tell you how many civilizations are out there!