Hunters of extraterrestrial intelligence are celebrating! Russian billionaire Yuri Milner financed SETI with $ 100 million.
Κατά τη διάρκεια μιας εκδήλωσης στο Royal Society στο Λονδίνο νωρίτερα σήμερα, ο Yuri Milner μαζί με τον φυσικό και κοσμολόγο Stephen Hawking, από τη σκηνή ανακοίνωσαν μια νέα πρωτοβουλία χρηματοδότησης του Search for Extraterrestrial market, or SETI that will help detect life throughout the universe.
Although several players and big names have occasionally spent time and resources to monitor electromagnetic radiation in broadcasts, today's news marks one of SETI's biggest funding in its history.
This money, over ten years, will be used to consolidate access to the Parkes Telescope in Australia and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. This access is largely limited to SETI scientists, as these radio telescopes are in great demand throughout the wider astronomical community. In fact, scientists will also have thousands of hours each year to use the telescopes.
To help raise public awareness, the project will organize a competition searchof a digital message that best represents life on Earth, with a prize of $1.000.000 for the winner.
Hawking, who will be an adviser to the ambitious project, said he believes life emerged "spontaneously" on Earth, so there must be "other appearances" of life in the infinite universe.
Yuri Milner on the other hand, is known for his investments in companies technologyς υψηλού προφίλ, όπως τη Groupon, το Facebook, τη Flipkart, την Alibaba, και τη Xiaomi.
