Russian Billionaire And Stephen Hawking Partner In $135 Million Project To Find Aliens

Stephen Hawking, a world renowned physicist suffers from a motor neurone disease that keeps him confined to a wheelchair and dependant on a computer-generated voice to communicate. Hawking has not let his disability keep him from using his mind and he has recently decided to team up with Russian billionaire Yuri Milner to assist him with his Breakthrough Initiatives project.

The project is expected to run for a period of 10 years and its main objective will be to listen and obtain proof that aliens do exist. The ten year project will receive approximately $135 million in funding and will also receive assistance from thousands of volunteers who will help to search and find proof that aliens do exist.

The Breakthrough Listen project will leverage the power of a Berkeley computing platform from the University of California. The search is expected to bring in close to 9 million volunteers during a 10 year period who will work side-by-side to search the skies on a global basis and document their findings. The entire search will be kept transparent at all times to ensure that whatever evidence is obtained will be clear and easy to document.

The project will rely on open source software so that the information can be shared quickly and efficiently. The team will focus on searching the Milky Way and more than 100 galaxies that are in close proximity. Scientists say that the project is huge and it could take well over 10 years to complete.

In a statement, Hawking said “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.”