Scientists have created a model that estimates the impact of dark energy parameters on the conditions for the development of life in space. They concluded that our Universe is not optimal for the emergence of intelligent beings.
In the early 1960s, American astronomer Frank Drake came up with his famous formula for calculating the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy. It is still the subject of much debate. Some researchers use it to try to estimate the probability of finding extraterrestrial intelligence, while others consider it simply anti-scientific.
A team of scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and Geneva decided to take a different route. Instead of trying to count the absolute number of observers (i.e. intelligent life) in the Universe, they considered the relative probability that a randomly chosen observer populates the Universe with certain properties.
To do this, the researchers developed a model that focuses on the conditions created by the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe and the number of stars that form. This expansion is believed to be driven by a mysterious force called dark energy. It accounts for more than two-thirds of the mass-energy of the Universe.
Since stars are a prerequisite for the origin of life as we know it, the researchers focused on calculating the fraction of ordinary matter converted into stars over the history of the Universe for different densities of dark energy. The bigger it is, the more stars there are. And therefore, the greater the chance that one of them will develop life.
To the surprise of the researchers, the model showed that in the most “efficient” Universe this figure would be 27%, while in our Universe it is only 23%. This means that the value of dark energy density observed by astronomers is not the one that, according to the model, would maximize the chances of life appearing. To put it another way, we live in a “suboptimal” Universe with far from the highest chances for the formation of intelligent life forms.
We previously covered how dark energy is related to black holes.
Provided by Phys.org
