Many astronomers to be hired for the search.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Backed by Stephen Hawking, Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner is splashing $100 million on the search for extraterrestrial life among the cosmos, the largest sum of money ever allocated to the effort.
The venture capitalist announced the initiative, called “Breakthrough Listen,” at a press conference Monday in London, alongside Hawking and other scientists.
According to The New York Times, two-thirds of Milner’s money will be used to build equipment and hire astronomers, with the remainder used to rent out two of the world’s largest radio telescopes in West Virginia and Australia and a third telescope in California that will look for messages sent via laser from elsewhere in the Milky Way.
The Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia –with a surface area of 2.3 acres — is longer than an American football field across its width. The instrument is so sensitive that federal law prohibits the use of cell phones within 100 miles of it.
In an interview with Business Insider, Milner said the project will scan 10 times more of the sky than any previous effort, while covering a wider range of radio frequencies. He said it will also process data 100 times faster than before.
If evidence of intelligent life is found, the second Breakthrough Initiative will come into play. Known as Breakthrough Message, it will organize a competition with prizes totaling $1 million to find the best avenues of communicating with aliens — probably by means of pictures or movies rather than any kind of language, reported the Belfast Telegraph.
“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 our rock, the universe discovered its existence,” Hawking asked during Monday’s press conference. “Either way, there is no bigger question. It is time to commit to finding the answer — to search for life beyond Earth,” he continued.