Advertisement

Stephen Hawking, Russian billionaire launch search for extraterrestrials

WATCH: A new 10-year, $130-million initiative has been launched in London in an effort to find out whether there is life outside of Eart. It’s being called the biggest venture in the search for extra-terrestrial life and is backed by one of science’s brightest minds. Mandy Clark reports.

LONDON – Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has joined a Russian billionaire to launch a major new effort to listen for aliens in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Hawking has offered his support to tech entrepreneur Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives project — a $100 million quest to see if extraterrestrial intelligence exists. Milner, who made a fortune through investments in companies like Facebook, said the power and innovation of Silicon Valley could be harnessed to search the entire Milky Way and 100 nearby galaxies.

READ MORE: Habitable planets: Is E.T. out there?

“There is no bigger question,” Hawking said, using a computer-generated voice to communicate because of his motor neuron disease. “It is time to commit to finding the answer to search for life beyond Earth.”

Story continues below advertisement
WATCH: Stephen Hawking and entrepreneur Yuri Milner announce the Breakthrough Initiatives project.

As well as using some of the world’s most powerful telescopes, the Breakthrough Listen project will support SETI@home, a University of California, Berkeley computing platform. The project will harness computer power, having nine million volunteers working in tandem by donating spare computing power to a worldwide network, scanning the skies and looking for life — creating one of the biggest supercomputers in the world.

The researchers say the focused computing power and the use of some of the world’s most powerful telescopes will allow them to collect in one day the same amount of data that would have taken one year to collect before the program began.

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

READ MORE: Is there alien life on this comet? Probably not, despite what two scientists say

“The scope of our search will be unprecedented — a million nearby stars, the galactic centre the entire plane of the Milky Way and 100 nearby galaxies,” Milner said.

Story continues below advertisement

He said the search will be entirely transparent and will rely on open-source software so findings can be shared throughout the world.

Milner plans to back the program for at least 10 years although scientists agree it may take longer to find proof that alien life exists.

Hawking said it is time for questions to be answered.

“We are intelligent, we are alive, we must know,” said Hawking.

Sponsored content

AdChoices