Submitted by Nigel Watson: In the field of astrobiology, few people have had a bigger influence than Frank Drake. In 1960, he conducted the first radio Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He formulated the “Drake Equation,” which set the standard for the search for alien life in our galaxy, providing scientific rigor to a field of inquiry that previously had been derided as pure science fiction. Drake, along with Carl Sagan, designed plaques that were carried on the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft. The Pioneer plaques depicted symbolic messages for any aliens the spacecraft might encounter as they travel outside our solar system. Drake also worked with Sagan on the Voyager Golden Record. Containing sounds and images of life on Earth, the record was sent on both the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft. Besides pursuing his interest in alien life, over the course of his career Drake conducted radio studies of the planets in our solar system, discovering the radiation belt of Jupiter and showing that Venus had a very high surface temperature.

He also studied pulsars, neutron stars that spin rapidly and thus send out flashes of electromagnetic energy much like a lighthouse beacon. Drake was the director of the Arecibo Radio Telescope Observatory for 12 years, and taught at Cornell University and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Now retired from teaching, he runs the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute. “There are currently two scientific programs at the SETI Institute,” says Drake, “one for radio SETI and one for astrobiology. I tell people that the first program deals with radio and optical searches, and then I take care of the rest of the universe.”

View: Full Article | Source: Astrobiology Magazine