British cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking launched the biggest-ever-hunt for extra-terrestrial intelligent life in the universe in a 10-year, $100-Million mission to scan the heavens. The Development Listen project, maintained by Russian Silicon Valley businessperson Yuri Milner, will be the most leading, general and thorough scientific exploration ever started for signs of extra-terrestrial intelligent life.
Hawking at the launch event at the Royal Society Science Academy (RSSA) in London said, "In an infinite universe, there must be new occurrences of life. Anywhere in the cosmos, maybe, intelligent life may be looking. Either way, there is no greater question. It's time to start to find the answer, to explore for life beyond Earth. We must know."
The plan is to search for laserand radio broadcasts from 1 million of the sun’s close neighbors in addition to hundred nearby galaxies. This mission promises up to 25% of the time reachable on two radio telescopes: Parkes in Australia and Green Bank in West Virginia. These telescopes should be able to collect transmissions as dominant as spacecraft radar coming from any one of the thousand nearest stars. The advantage is connected with the Breakthrough Message project, a worldwide struggle to produce digital messages that characterize human race. There is no promise to direct or send any messages into space, and the project should start debate about whether humans should be sending messages at all out into the universe.
The money, to be spent in the next 10 years, will also deliver assistance in developing the software compulsory to powerfully listen to our fellow galactic citizens.
