Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner launch program to search for extraterrestrial life

LONDON – The search for extraterrestrial life received a major boost Monday with the launch of an ambitious $100 million program, backed by famed physicist Stephen Hawking and tech billionaire Yuri Milner.

Combining unprecedented computing capacity with the world’s most powerful telescopes, Hawking and the Russian-born Milner seek to intensify the so-far fruitless search for life beyond the planet Earth.

Hawking, who speaks using a computer-generated voice due to the effects of motor neuron disease, explained the reason for the 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 and innovation would be used.

“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,” Milner told a packed news conference at the Royal Society in London.

Organizers say the “Breakthrough Initiatives” project, also endorsed by other prominent British scientists, is the biggest scientific search for alien life. It includes a “listening” program – the effort to analyze vast amounts of radio signals in search of signs of life – and a “messaging” program that will include $1 million in prizes for digital messages that best represent the planet Earth.

The messages will not be sent, however, in part because some scientists – including Hawking – fear messages sent into space could possibly spur aggressive actions by alien races.

The project will be 50 times more sensitive than earlier searches and will cover 10 times more of the sky, organizers say.

It will also make use of SETI@home, a University of California, Berkeley project that uses some 9 million volunteers worldwide who donate computer power to search astronomical data for signs of life.

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 the new program 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access to time on major telescopes, a huge data capacity and a long-term financial commitment that will not be withdrawn.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.”