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A pioneering new $100m (£64m) attempt to search the skies for signs of intelligent life has been unveiled by Russian tech investor Yuri Milner, Professor Stephen Hawking and Lord Martin Rees.
Funded by Milner, the Breakthrough Initiative was launched at the Royal Society in London as the largest-ever effort to search for alien civilisations.
The 10 year project will use open data and software, and work with teams at the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, United States, and the Parkes Telescope in Australia to try to find signals that might be being broadcast by civilisations across the galaxy, whether from planets or machine-based AI.
The Breakthrough Initiative will be a 10-year study using two of the world's largest telescopes, with a $1m (£642,000) prize for anyone able to find evidence of aliens. A larger component, Breakthrough Listen, will widen the search using open data and open source software.
Andrew Siemion, a director at the University of Berkeley’s SETI research centre, said the new search was between 50 and 100 times more powerful than previous attempts.
"It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark."
"This was once a dream, it is now a truly scientific quest," Milner said. "In the 21st century we will find out about life at a galactic scale." The $100m investment is separate to Milner's $160m funding of the Breakthrough Prize, a high-profile science award that recognises major advances.
If a civilisation was broadcasting anything with the power of a "common aircraft radar" from the closest 1,000 stars, the Breakthrough Listen team believe they will find it.
"We believe that life arose spontaneously on Earth, so in an infinite universe there must be other occurrences of life. Somewhere in the cosmos perhaps intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours, aware of what they mean," said Professor Hawking at the launch. "It’s time to commit to finding the answer to search for life beyond Earth. The Breakthrough Initiate is making that commitment."
"It is sure to bear fruit," Hawking said. "If a search of this scale and sophistication finds no evidence of intelligence out there it will be a very interesting result. It will not prove that we are alone, but it will narrow the possibilities."
"It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark."
Read more: $100m Breakthrough Listen is 'largest ever' search for alien civilisations (Wired UK)
Funded by Milner, the Breakthrough Initiative was launched at the Royal Society in London as the largest-ever effort to search for alien civilisations.
The 10 year project will use open data and software, and work with teams at the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, United States, and the Parkes Telescope in Australia to try to find signals that might be being broadcast by civilisations across the galaxy, whether from planets or machine-based AI.
The Breakthrough Initiative will be a 10-year study using two of the world's largest telescopes, with a $1m (£642,000) prize for anyone able to find evidence of aliens. A larger component, Breakthrough Listen, will widen the search using open data and open source software.
Andrew Siemion, a director at the University of Berkeley’s SETI research centre, said the new search was between 50 and 100 times more powerful than previous attempts.
"It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark."
"This was once a dream, it is now a truly scientific quest," Milner said. "In the 21st century we will find out about life at a galactic scale." The $100m investment is separate to Milner's $160m funding of the Breakthrough Prize, a high-profile science award that recognises major advances.
If a civilisation was broadcasting anything with the power of a "common aircraft radar" from the closest 1,000 stars, the Breakthrough Listen team believe they will find it.
"We believe that life arose spontaneously on Earth, so in an infinite universe there must be other occurrences of life. Somewhere in the cosmos perhaps intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours, aware of what they mean," said Professor Hawking at the launch. "It’s time to commit to finding the answer to search for life beyond Earth. The Breakthrough Initiate is making that commitment."
"It is sure to bear fruit," Hawking said. "If a search of this scale and sophistication finds no evidence of intelligence out there it will be a very interesting result. It will not prove that we are alone, but it will narrow the possibilities."
"It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark."
Read more: $100m Breakthrough Listen is 'largest ever' search for alien civilisations (Wired UK)
I only hope they'll actually let us know if they do come across an alien civilisation... I think it'll almost be a rebirth for humankind.
