What is Fermi Paradox? - Science Feed

Have you ever thought why we have not found any advanced intelligent organism yet? Or is there any other type of life form outside our planet Earth?

These are the basic questions that come into mind when we talk about Fermi Paradox.

Fermi Paradox

Fermi paradox is the lack of compatibility or contradiction between the high chances of existence of extraterrestrial civilization in the universe and lack of evidence to find them or communicate with them.
This was termed after the name of physicist Enrico Fermi. It casually came in head of Fermi during talk with his colleagues and he asked, "Where is everybody?".

Early and Related Theories

Before Fermi Enrico, the founding father of modern rocket science Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, a Russian scientist, proposed Zoo hypothesis. In Zoo hypothesis, it is speculated that the extraterrestrial civilization knows about our existence but instead of contacting us, they opt to do observation on us similar to animals in zoo. 
The other theory or concept is "The Great Filter". It was proposed by Robin Dale Henson. According to him, there are some evolutionary steps that every intelligent life should follow such that they can ensure their survival. If one of the steps are failed, then it all comes to end.
Kardeshev Scale is another theoretical method to justify the existence of extraterrestrial organisms, but it is based on energy consumption to evolve their life state. There is different TYPE described like I, II, III, etc. It has been stated that currently we (humans) are at 0.7 Type approximately and it can be predicted that there should be existence of far advanced civilizations than us. It is also told that these advanced civilizations can also nullify our ways to communicate outside.

Hypothetical Situations

There are a lot of hypotheses that say about Fermi Paradox. Those are based on rarity, extinction, communication, etc. There may be possibility that the alien civilization is just too much far away from us that even if they try to reach us, it is just impossible like for us. The distance of extraterrestrial object in extreme in length. Even if we travel at speed of light, we will just die in the way, or the space travel isn't that much safe to travel. We have very little information about travel in space and this travel can be way more complicated than it looks. 
There is another possibility that is just opposite. may be aliens are so much advance that they are just observing us like animals in a zoo, the Zoo hypothesis. They are kind of doing research on us like a mere observer so that they learn more about us before contacting us. UFO incidents are great proof of it. People say that they saw a non-human flying object like a disk at extreme high speed that human made supersonic fighter jets can't fly at that speed. 

Mathematical Formulation

One of the most popular mathematical formulations for finding terrestrial life is Drake Equation. This equation states that the number of civilizations in a galaxy with which we might communicate (N) is equal to the product of average rate of star formation in the galaxy (R), fraction of those stars that have planets (f_p), average number of planets that could support life per star that has planets (n_e), the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at a point (f_l), fraction of planets that go on to develop intelligent life (f_i), fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space (f_c) and length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space (L).

Drake Equation

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Fermi Paradox remains a profound and captivating mystery. While numerous theories and models offer potential explanations, the absence of definitive evidence keeps the question open. As we continue to explore the cosmos, the paradox challenges us to expand our understanding of life, intelligence, and our place in the universe.