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Richard Cochrane is trained in chemistry and metallurgy but is far more interested and practiced as a political and fund raising consultant, writer and amateur historian. He grew up in a Navy family and with his two younger brothers carried on its 500+ year tradition of naval service to Great Britain and the USA then enjoyed a career with one of the largest advertising and public relations agencies working with numerous Fortune 500 companies and many of America's premier educational institutions. He maintains friendships and acquaintanceships around the world. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

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The Movie CONTACT Set the Scene - Now What

June 22nd, 2008 • Richard Cochrane
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Do you speak Japanese?Hello ET we are listening

Astronomical observatories are teaming up for an unprecedented quest to find out whether there is life in outer space.

The project, led by Japanese astronomers, will bring together a dozen or more observatories from all over the country to study one star that researchers see as a potential home to an extraterrestrial civilization. Their searches have not been too fruitful so far.

Multiple participants will observe one star, to check on whether the suspicious signals received are actually from the natural world adding that they have not decided on which star to observe. The nearest star is 45 light years away, one light year is slightly less than 7 billion miles, in any case a signal will take 45 year to get here.

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  1. Comment by richard cochrane on 22 June 2008:

    N=(R*)(Ns)(Fp)(Ne)(Fl)(Fi)(Fc)(L) is the formula Carl Segan used to calculate the likelihood of intelligent life able to communicate with us. N = Number of civilizations we can communicate with
    R* = Average star formation rate
    Ns = Percentage of stars capable of supporting earth-like planets
    Fp = Percentage of those stars with planets
    Ne = Average umber of planets in those stars’ habitable zones
    Fl = Percentage of those planets where life begins
    Fi = Percentage of planets with life where an intelligent species evolves
    Fc = Percentage of those intelligent species that develop communication technology
    L = Average lifetime, in years, of a civilization that develops such technology
    He concluded the number within 200 million light years is 10.
    Go to http://alienlifeblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/calculating-average-number-of-habitable.html and you can calculate it yourself.

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