• Stephen Hawking has teamed up with Russian billionaire Yuri Milner to search for extra-terrestrial life, in a decade-long venture worth $US100 million ($AUD135.49 million).
• The renowned British physicist has reportedly given his backing to Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives, which will listen for broadcast signals from a million of the stars closest to Earth.
• It’s reported that the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia will be used in the project.
• Those behind the project claim it is the biggest scientific search for alien life ever undertaken.
• Milner is an entrepreneur who made his fortune through investments in companies, such as Facebook.
• Professor Hawking said that “life arose spontaneously on Earth”, which means that in an infinite universe “there must be other occurrences of life” and that there is “no bigger question” than are we alone?
• As put by Professor Stephen Hawking, “We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know”.   

Read more:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33596271

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/07/20/stephen-hawking-announces-100-million-hunt-for-alien-life/

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/stephen-hawking-leads-search-for-extraterrestrial-life/story-fnjwlcze-1227450229409

by