⁣Frank Drake, pioneer in the search for alien life, dies at 92 | EverythingScience

⁣Frank Drake, pioneer in the search for alien life, dies at 92

⁣Drake’s contributions to science were numerous. A founder of the scientific field engaged in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), he developed the Drake Equation, a framework for estimating the number of possible civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.

He made the first observations of Jupiter’s radiation belts, and he was one of the first astronomers to measure Venus’s searing surface temperature and the greenhouse effect of its thick atmosphere.

Drake served as the director of the Arecibo radio observatory in Puerto Rico. He was a mentor and inspiration to generations of astronomers and astrophysicists.

“When the history of science is written a few hundred years from now, after we have made the detection of intelligent life beyond Earth—which I absolutely believe at some point we will—I believe Frank will take a place among the greatest scientists who ever lived,” says astrophysicist Andrew Siemion

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