Hawking launches biggest-ever search for alien life

Yahoo – AFP, Robin Millard, 20 July 2015

The project will search for alien life across the Milky Way and other parts 

of the universe, by looking for radio spectrums and laser signals (AFP Photo)

London (AFP) - British cosmologist Stephen Hawking on Monday launched the biggest-ever search for intelligent extraterrestrial life in a $100-million (92-million-euro), 10-year project to scan the heavens.

Russian Silicon Valley entrepreneur Yuri Milner, who is funding the Breakthrough Listen initiative, said it would be the most intensive scientific search ever undertaken for signs of alien civilisation.

"In an infinite universe, there must be other occurrences of life," Hawking said at the launch event at the Royal Society science academy in London.

"Somewhere in the cosmos, perhaps, intelligent life may be watching.

"Either way, there is no bigger question. It's time to commit to finding the answer, to search for life beyond Earth.

"It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark."

The project will use some of the biggest telescopes on Earth, searching far deeper into the universe than before for radio and laser signals.

"Breakthrough Listen takes the search for intelligent life in the universe to a completely new level," said Milner, a former physicist.

He said the scan would collect more data in one day than a year of any previous search, tracking the million closest stars, the centre of our Milky Way galaxy and the 100 closest galaxies.

Earth's telescopes would be able to detect a signal from similarly-advanced technology sent from the centre of the Milky Way.

"We don't need to assume that civilisation is way more developed than we are," Milner said.

Stephen Hawking attends a press conference in London on July 20, 2015, 

where he and Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner announced the launch of

the Breakthrough Initiative (AFP Photo/Niklas Halle'N)

'Huge gamble, colossal pay-off'

Martin Rees, Britain's astronomer royal and one of the project leaders, said modern technology allowed much more sensitive searches than ever before, though he cautioned against expectations of finding intelligent alien life.

"It's a huge gamble, of course, but the pay-off would be so colossal... even if the chance of success is small," the astrophysicist said.

However, the possibility of finding life had effectively risen a billionfold through the identification of billions of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way, he said.

"Is there life out there? We may not answer it but this gives a bigger chance that it may be answered in our lifetime," he said.

The programme will be 50 times more sensitive than previous searches, and cover 10 times more of the sky, experts said.

It will scan at least five times more of the radio spectrum, and 100 times faster, while in tandem undertake the deepest and broadest-ever search for optical laser transmissions.

All the data will be publicly available, allowing anyone interested to do their own trawling.

Debate over sending messages

The project is allied with the Breakthrough Message initiative, a global competition with a maximum $1 million prize pot to come up with the best message humans could send into the void.

However, there is no commitment to send any such message, as experts are torn on the wisdom and ethics of doing so.

Frank Drake, who sent messages into space in the 1970s, said: "We know there are people who are afraid that sending is going to endanger us."

Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner attends a press conference in London on July 20, 

2015 on the Breakthrough Initiative, a new project to attempt to detect life in the

Cosmos (AFP Photo/Niklas Halle'N)

Hawking has warned in the past about the risks of making contact with other civilisations.

"A civilisation reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead," the 73-year-old mastermind said.

"If so, they will be vastly more powerful and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria."

However, Rees said: "I suggest they know we're here already."

Drake said it could take at least 200 years before even the possibility of a reply to "shot in the dark" messages beamed into space.

By waiting to find civilisation, we could then tailor a "useful message" to send them.

Ann Druyan, who sent music on the 1970s Voyager probe launches, said the first thing to establish would be a means of communication and an intention to learn.

"We'd want to know their history, social forms, how they understand the origins of the universe," she said, but as for a first message, "'Hello' would be right up there".

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"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" -  Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"Common Questions from Non-Lightworkers" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... Question Three: Is there life on other planets?

Are you kidding? There's life everywhere. Everywhere! Right now, your scientists are searching for microbial life on all the planets and their moons in your solar system, and they will eventually find it. They expect to find it. They will eventually understand that the seeds of life are everywhere.

How much life might there be? How long has it been "out there"? When science starts to realize the scope of how long life has been in your galaxy, they will begin to see something counterintuitive to evolution - their own Human history. How old is your Universe? Ask your scientists and they will say about 13 billion years. That's OK. Let's use their numbers. How old is your own planet - 4 or 5 billion, perhaps? Correct. But how old is humanity? Why weren't you here with the dinosaurs? You think the earth wasn't ready? Do you think that perhaps that which controls evolution was a little too stupid to make a Human sooner, but the process could make a dinosaur? Have you ever thought about these things?

If you put the earth's entire history into a 24-hour clock, life itself only started in the last hour and humanity, all of civilization, happened the last few seconds. Isn't that odd to you? Therefore, in a Universe that may be 13 billion years old, you arrived in the last few seconds. Did you ever think maybe you're the newest ones on the block? Well, you'd be right.

If the Universe is really that old, do you think perhaps there are civilizations in your galaxy that might be a billion or more years older than you? If that's the case, do you think perhaps they have gone through anything you're going through? Do you think any of them might have had your DNA attributes? Perhaps they also went through what you are going through spiritually? Perhaps they even went into a quantum ascension status? The answer is dozens of them.

You already know them and you've listed them in your publications. The ones who directly seeded you are called Pleiadians. The ones who seeded them might be Octurian and the ones who seeded them may be even Orion. They're everywhere, and they're all here as well. They're looking at you, for you are the ones who are next, and you are passing this marker of the shift

Oh, dear ones, it's going to be a long time before you really know any of these things to be your reality. The first step is peace on Earth. The next is a new kind of Human evolution that is going to increase your DNA efficiency to 100% and you're going to live a long time. Every time I say that, there are Humans in their intellectual mind saying, "Well, there is a geometric birth rate going on. We're not going to make it. It's going to over-crowd and we are going to run out of food. So what you're saying, Kryon, can't be a good thing. We're all going to be suffering and killing each other for food."

Let me address this, for if that is your thought, Human, you are assuming Humans are stupid and haven't figured out what's going on and why there's so much birth. You assume they can't control it because they haven't figured it out? I want to tell you, you're going to see something you didn't expect. You're going to see a decline in birth rate because Humans are smart and they're getting smarter. They're going to see that quality of life is linked to the number of children they have, and they're going to figure out the solution. It won't be how many children their church says they should have. They are going to do it intuitively. You're going to see it sooner than not.

You are going to see wisdom on the planet in many areas that no sociologist would ever have predicted. You will surprise them all, and it's going to happen without a government program. It's going to happen because you decide you want it. It's going to happen collectively, and you may even see it soon. Look for negative birth rates in first-world countries. Where Humans are able to see a larger picture and have freedom of information, the situation will not be what you have predicted.

Is there life on other planets? The scientists are saying, "It's going to be a long time before we get to the stars, you know? We have to get in this little metal can and put air in it, and then travel in it for years and years before we ever get to the next star." Meanwhile, a Pleiadian can do it in the blink of an eye! What do you think is going on there? Do you even believe me?

Not long ago, if you wanted to communicate to someone far away, you sent a letter. It was carried by a horse. It took a month to get a response. Now you communicate instantly!  Why is this so unbelievable to you about travel?

I will tell you, as long as you stay in 3D, you'll still be getting in little metal cans and air suits and going to planets. As soon as you begin the quantum age, however, you will simply wish yourself there, because you will be entangled with everything and can go with intent. If you don't believe this now, you will later, for what I give you is true. It may be lifetimes and lifetimes from now, but the group that is before me is the group that is going to come back over and over and over. The difference is that you're done coming back in an old energy. This is a new energy. ..”