World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking’s and tech entrepreneur Yuri Milners are about to embark on a $100 million dollar journey to try and discover one of the longest unanswered questions, the existence of extra terrestrial life.
Project “Breakthrough Initiatives” will use some of the world’s most powerful telescopes and harness computing power, having approximately 9 million volunteers working in tandem by donating spare computer power to a worldwide network, according to AP. The project will benefit the University of California and the Berkley computing platform. The hope is to create a sort of super computer that will scan the galaxies for signs of intelligent life that we have not yet discovered.
According to Hawking’s, “There is no bigger question. It is time to commit to finding the answer to search for life beyond Earth.” “We are intelligent, we are alive, we must know.”
Milner has already agreed to contribute to the project for 10 years although many scientists agree that it will take longer than that to complete the mission and conduct research. Milner said, “The scope of our search will be unprecedented – a million nearby stars, the galactic center the entire plane of the Milky Way and 100 nearby galaxies.”
