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posted by LaminatorX on Monday July 20 2015, @10:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the Stars-like-Dust dept.

Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner have announced Breakthrough Listen, a $100 million project that will increase the intensity of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (or their signals):

Speaking at the launch, Prof Hawking said: "Somewhere in the cosmos, perhaps, intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours, aware of what they mean. "Or do our lights wander a lifeless cosmos - unseen beacons, announcing that here, on one rock, the Universe discovered its existence. Either way, there is no bigger question. It's time to commit to finding the answer - to search for life beyond Earth. We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know."

Those behind the initiative claim it to be the biggest scientific search ever undertaken for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth. They plan to cover 10 times more of the sky than previous programmes and scan five times more of the radio spectrum, 100 times faster. It will involve access to two of the world's most powerful telescopes. - the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia.

Yuri Milner is known for his creation and funding of Breakthrough Prizes, which award $3 million to researchers for achievements in the life sciences, physics, and mathematics. Also reported at Washington Post, NPR, El Reg, and Scientific American.


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  • (Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Tuesday July 21 2015, @10:42AM

    by AnonTechie (2275) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @10:42AM (#211865) Journal

    Should they not consider other methods to detect intelligent life ?

    --
    Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by dast on Tuesday July 21 2015, @02:35PM

    by dast (1633) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @02:35PM (#211930)

    Like what? Telepathy?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @03:08PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @03:08PM (#211950)

      Searching for neutrino signals, [wikipedia.org] of course.