Astronomers hope someday to detect signals from an extraterrestrial civilization.
Radio waves travel immense distances without being significantly degraded by all the dust and gas through which they must pass, making this a logical choice for interstellar communication. The first scientist to tackle this idea head on was Dr. Frank Drake while he was a staff member of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory . L the lifetime of the technologically advanced civilization. Using statistical studies of star formation in the Milky Way Galaxy, astronomers estimate that one Sun-like star forms in the galaxy each year. Using our Solar System as an example, n e , the number of Earth-like planets in each system might be one.