[FPSPACE] Intelligent life in our galaxy is common? Perhaps, say University of Edinbrugh researchers

[Jens Kieffer-Olsen]

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Pesavento [mailto:pjp961 at svol.net] 
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 9:50 PM

> From the UK Telegraph

 [snip]
 
> Researchers have calculated that up to 37,964 worlds
> in our galaxy are hospitable enough to be home to
> creatures at least as intelligent as ourselves. 
> Astrophysicist Duncan Forgan created a computer programme
> that collated all the data on the 330 or so planets known
> to man and worked out what proportion would have
> conditions suitable for life. The estimate, which took
> into account factors such as temperature and availability
> of water and minerals, was then extrapolated across the
> Milky Way. Mr Forgan believes that the life forms would
> not be amoeba wriggling on the end of a microscope but
> species at least as advanced as humans. 

 What has probably not been taken into account is for these
 planets to excel in the luxury of having a large moon to
 stabilize their orbital tilt.

 It has been argued that lunar tides were important in creating
 wetlands prompting ocean fauna to come out of the water. That
 may well be true, but maintaining a stable tilt is a crucial
 contribution that only a junior partner in binary planet system 
 can provide.

 Even though the Moon sees to it that the tilt of Earth is kept
 between 22½ and 24 degrees that slight variation is believed
 to bear the main responsibility for the recurrent glaciations.

 Consider all the hullabaloo relating to so-called global warming,
 some hotheads even claim our survival is at stake, and you will
 appreciate that the high degree of climate stability that the
 Earth enjoys thanks to the Moon has been an indispensable factor
 in the evolutionary process that led to Homo Sapiens.

--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
Slagelse, Denmark