Hunters of extraterrestrial intelligence are celebrating! Russian billionaire Yuri Milner financed SETI with $ 100 million.
During an event at the Royal Society in London earlier today, Yuri Milner along with physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, from the stage announced a new initiative to fund the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, which will help detect life throughout the universe.
Although several organizations and big names have occasionally devoted time and e.gconditions to monitor electromagnetic radiation in transmissions, today's news marks one of the largest funding acquisitions SETI has received in its history.
This money, over ten years, will be used to consolidate access to the Parkes telescope in Australia, and at the Green Bank Telescope located in West Virginia. This access is largely restricted to SETI scientists, as these radio telescopes are in high demand throughout the wider astronomical community. In fact, scientists will have thousands of additional hours each year to use the telescopes.
To help raise public awareness, the project will organize a competition search of 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 technology high-profile companies such as Groupon, Facebook, Flipkart, Alibaba, and Xiaomi.
