The article "The Chance of Finding Aliens" by Govert Schilling and Alan M. MacRobert discusses the history of how the search for extraterrestrial intelligence became a point of interest. According to this article, the beginning of the search for life on other planets started with Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison in September 1959. They suggested that radio telescopes should be used to communicate with other intelligence. Another focal point of this article is the Drake equation. The Drake equation is important because it makes SETI tangible. The difficult part of it is to estimate the numbers to insert into the equation. Each number can vary from person to person and each greatly changes the final result.
"Life on Ceres: Could the Dwarf Planet be the Root of Panspermia" written by Ian O'Neill is about Ceres and the likelihood of it supporting life. Ceres is a dwarf planet that is located on the astroid belt that orbits around the sun. There is a large possibility that it may contain water. This is not the only reason scientists are enthusiastic about Ceres. It also has low mass just like Earth. All these qualities make it the best candidate for life in the solar system outside of Earth. These question will be answered once the Dawn spacecraft reaches Ceres in approximately five years.
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