Like a plot straight out of science fiction movies, a world-famous physicist has launched what was described as "the biggest-ever search for intelligent extraterrestrial life," to the tune of $135 million, ABC Australia reported.
"Russian Silicon Valley entrepreneur Yuri Milner, who is funding the Breakthrough Listen initiative, said it would be the most intensive scientific search ever undertaken for signs of extraterrestrial intelligent life," the news source said.
The project will span 10 years and will utilize some of the largest telescopes in the world to access the deeper recesses of the universe in a bid to find laser and radio signals. In fact, researchers have already secured viewing time on two of the most powerful telescopes in the U.S. and Australia for this purpose.
"The search will be 50 times more sensitive, and cover 10 times more sky, than previous hunts for alien life," The Guardian noted.
"It's time to commit to finding the answer, to search for life beyond Earth," Hawking announced Monday. "Mankind has a deep need to explore, to learn, to know. We also happen to be sociable creatures. It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark."
"Somewhere in the cosmos, perhaps, intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours, aware of what they mean," he also explained, as quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald. "Or do our lights wander a lifeless cosmos - unseen beacons, announcing that here, on one rock, the Universe discovered its existence?"
The physicist, however, clarified that it may be unwise to transmit our own signals in order to let neighbors in space know of our own existence.
"We don't know much about aliens but we know about humans," he said, adding that contact between civilizations with dissimilar levels of technology may not work in the favor of the "less advanced."
It was also revealed that a communication exchange with aliens may span decades or centuries as it takes about that long to send or receive a message.
"A civilisation reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead. They will be vastly more powerful and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria," Hawking speculated.
Milner revealed that the project would "collect more data in one day than a year of any previous search."
Meanwhile, British astronomer royal Martin Rees, who is one of the leaders of the project, said that the venture is indeed "a huge gamble" but it also has a pay-off that may prove to be "colossal.
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