'There is no bigger question': Stephen Hawking endorses ambitious new bid to find alien life
Based on new information about the number of other worlds where life could have taken hold it is "quite likely" humans are not alone, he said.
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and Russian-born billionaire Yuri Milner yesterday announced an ambitious bid to combine vast computing capacity with the world's most powerful telescopes to intensify the so far fruitless search for extraterrestrial life.
Hawking, who speaks using a computer-generated voice due to the effects of motor neuron disease, explained the reason for the US$100 million project: "We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know."
Milner, who made a fortune through investments in companies like Facebook, said the power of Silicon Valley technology would be used.
"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 told a packed press conference at the Royal Society in London.
Organisers say the "Breakthrough Initiatives" project, also endorsed by other prominent British scientists, is the biggest ever scientific search for alien life.
Hawking said the new programme should succeed because it has ample resources: access to time on major telescopes, a huge data capacity, and a long-term financial commitment that will not be withdrawn.
"If a search of this sophistication finds no proof, that is an interesting result," he said. "It will not prove that we are alone but it will narrow the possibilities and it is likely to produce data that is fascinating in its own right."
Based on new information about the number of other worlds where life could have taken hold it is "quite likely" humans are not alone, he said.
"There is no bigger question," Hawking said. "It is time to commit to finding the answer."
