https://www.scmp.com/rss/322482/feed The Breakthrough Starshot Project is a US$100 million space research mission unveiled in April 2016 by renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and tech tycoon Yuri Milner that will explore Earth's nearest star system 40 trillion kilometres away. It will see thousands of light-propelled nanocraft launched, traveling at 160 million kilometres per hour, or 20-per cent the speed of light. The unmanned probes are expected to reach Alpha Centauri in just over 20 years - within a lifetime - much sooner than... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Back in April, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner pledged US$100 million toward a crazy plan to visit another star system. The mission — Breakthrough Starshot — aims to get this done by propelling teeny, tiny spaceships to 20 per cent the speed of light with powerful lasers. Milner and famed physicist Stephen Hawking initially said their destination would be Alpha Centauri: the nearest star system to Earth, located some 4.37 light-years (25.7 trillion miles) away. But as far as anyone knows, Alpha... https://www.scmp.com/tech/innovation/article/2008701/mission-alpha-centauri-discovers-potentially-habitable-world-way?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/innovation/article/2008701/mission-alpha-centauri-discovers-potentially-habitable-world-way?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Aug 2016 22:30:30 +0000 Renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking has told his three million fans on mainland social media that we cannot be sure if we are all living in a dream, or in reality. “How do we know if we are living in our dreams or reality – well, we just don’t and perhaps can’t!” Hawking wrote in a post on Weibo, the mainland’s microblogging website and equivalent to Twitter. Hawking’s comment was in response to a question on the writings of the ancient Chinese philosopher, Zhuangzi, or “Master Zhuang”, who... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1939464/stephen-hawking-weibo-fans-we-cant-tell-if-life-just-dream?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1939464/stephen-hawking-weibo-fans-we-cant-tell-if-life-just-dream?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Apr 2016 04:30:30 +0000 Click to view the full-size infographic https://www.scmp.com/infographics/article/1935634/infographic-hello-neighbour?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/infographics/article/1935634/infographic-hello-neighbour?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Apr 2016 02:15:00 +0000 If space were indeed the final frontier, Alpha Centauri – the closest star system to the Sun – would certainly be the first stop. When Captain James Kirk sailed by Alpha Centauri in his starship in the Star Trek series, he might well have encountered Avatar’s blue-skinned Neytiri training her dragon-bird on the Pandora moon, The Transformers’ Autobots looking for their lost planet Cybertron, or even The Three-Body Problem’s supercomputer Sophon on her way from planet Trisolaris to spy on... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1935413/space-odyssey-alpha-centauri-where-no-man-has-gone-except-movies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1935413/space-odyssey-alpha-centauri-where-no-man-has-gone-except-movies?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Apr 2016 16:30:45 +0000 An unprecedented space exploration project by top scientists and technopreneurs is developing ­unmanned “nanocraft” capable of travelling 160 million km/h to reach the nearest star system in just 20 years, British physicist Stephen Hawking and tech guru Yuri ­Milner announce today. The Breakthrough Starshot project – which will receive US$100 million worth of research funding – is aimed at revolutionising science and space exploration, the South China Morning Post has learnt. INFOGRAPHIC: Hello,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1935511/giant-leap-mankind-alpha-centauri-stephen-hawking-announces-plan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1935511/giant-leap-mankind-alpha-centauri-stephen-hawking-announces-plan?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Apr 2016 16:30:45 +0000