NEWS

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astronomR 0.2.0

New features

• Added drake_equation() — computes N, the estimated number of active, communicating civilisations in the Milky Way, from the seven classic Drake equation parameters (R_star, fp, ne, fl, fi, fc, L). Returns a named list with the numeric result, a substituted equation string, all input values, and a qualitative six-tier interpretation of N ranging from "effectively zero" (N < 0.001) to "galaxy teeming with life" (N ≥ 10 000).

Minor changes

• DESCRIPTION updated to mention the Drake equation capability.
• Version bumped to 0.2.0.

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astronomR 0.1.0 (2026-05-27)

• Initial release of astronomR.
• Angular conversion functions: deg_to_dms(), dms_to_deg(), deg_to_hms(), hms_to_deg(), deg2rad(), rad2deg().
• Physical constants dataset constants_df and retrieval function constant_value().
• Gaia Archive query function get_gaia_data().
• Distance conversion functions km_to_Mpc() and Mpc_to_km().
• Early-universe thermal physics functions: photon_energy_density_fn_T(), photon_energy_density_fn_z(), photon_number_density_fn_T(), photon_number_density_fn_z(), Saha_Xe(), and soln_saha().