Are there really aliens? This is the curious question we earthly mortals have not been able to answer. It is of course a source for conspiracies and half-truths ranging from the sight of UFOs, to linkages to bizarre creatures scientists come across. While, man has been able to partial conquer the milky way by showing us constellations and even taking an epic voyage to Pluto, the presence of alien life is a question that seems to dodge him.
However, a Russian billionaire is fascinated so much by astronomy, and is convinced there must be aliens to the point of taking the search a notch higher. The billionaire has pledged $ 100 million to a project called “Breakthrough Listen” which is arguably the biggest scientific search for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth. According to Bloomberg, the billionaire Yuri Milner made most of his fortune betting on Internet companies among them Facebook, Twitter and Alibaba.
The hunt for alien civilization will span a period of 10 years led by a group of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. According to Bloomberg, the researchers will have access to the most powerful telescopes in the world, the Green Bank telescope in West Virginia, and the Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia. The project scope will include a survey of million of stars closest to Earth and covering 10 times of what previous attempts covered.
So whats different from other searches, according to Yuri, this time they plan to ” bring the Silicon Valley approach to the search for intelligent life in the universe”. The researchers will harness the problem-solving power of social networks by making the data open. The billionaire has also offered $1 million in prize money to a project called Breakthrough message, aimed at successfully creating and sending digital messages into the universe, which represent humanity and planet earth.
Good luck with that :).
Source: Bloomberg
