Stephen Hawking leads search for extraterrestrial life

WORLD famous physicist Stephen Hawking is hoping to go where no one has gone before in a new venture to find other forms of life in the universe.

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RENOWNED physicist Stephen Hawking has teamed up with a Russian billionaire to launch a venture to search for extraterrestrial life.

The British scientist has given his backing to Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives project, which will provide $US100 million ($135.49 million) over the next decade to those searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.

‘There is no bigger question’ ... Billionaire Yuri Milner and physicist Stephen Hawking announce a venture to search for extraterrestrial life. Picture: Getty Images

Milner, an entrepreneur who made his fortune through investments in companies such as Facebook, said he will harness the innovation of Silicon Valley to scan the skies for signs of life, including searching the entire Milky Way and 100 nearby galaxies.

The Breakthrough Listen branch of the project will use the world’s finest telescopes to carry out state-of-the-art radio and optical surveys.

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Announcing his support for the project, Professor Hawking said science had discovered many things about the universe, such as the forces that bind atoms and the secrets of black holes, but while this had helped explain the light of stars it could not explain “the lights that shine from planet Earth.”

Big plans ... Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives project, which will provide $US100 million ($135.49 million) over the next decade for those searching for extraterrestrial life. Picture: AFP

He went on: “To understand these lights you must know about life, about minds. We believe that life arose spontaneously on Earth so in an infinite universe there must be other occurrences of life.

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“Somewhere in the cosmos, perhaps, intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours aware of what they mean. Or do our lights wander a lifeless cosmos, unseen beacons announcing that here on our rock, the universe discovered its existence?

“Either way, there is no bigger question.”