SYDNEY: Astronomers say it’s the most ambitious and exciting project of its kind: a $100 million endeavour to find intelligent alien life.
The hunt for extraterrestrial life is being funded by the Russian billionaire Yuri Milner and it has the backing of cosmologist Stephen Hawking.
And Australia will play a crucial role; the Parkes Observatory in New South Wales has signed a multi-million dollar contract to scan radio waves for life in the cosmos.
Bridget Brennan reports.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Are we the only intelligent life in the universe? Who else or what else might be out there?
Professor Stephen Hawking says it’s time to find out.
STEPHEN HAWKING: Mankind has a deep need to explore, to learn, to know. We also happen to be sociable creatures. It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Steven Hawking was speaking in London, to launch a 10-year hunt for alien life. The project is known as “Breakthrough Listen”.
Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner, who has carved out a career investing in Silicon Valley, is the sole investor.
YURI MILNER: It is time to open our eyes, our ears and our minds to the cosmos.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Breakthrough Listen will search for laser transmissions and radio signals from a million of the stars closest to Earth.
Professor Matthew Bailes from Melbourne’s Swinburne University was let in on the secret mission just a few days ago.
He’s still coming to terms with the announcement.
MATTHEW BAILES: I was completely blown away. In fact I have to still pinch myself that I’m not dreaming. It’s an amazing cash investment in the science that we do, and it’s astounding really.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Professor Bailes will be the project’s lead investigator at the Parkes Telescope in New South Wales.
The CSIRO will contract a quarter of the telescope’s time for five years to scan for potential radio signals from galaxies beyond our reach.
MATTHEW BAILES: Radio waves are a very efficient way of transmitting information and it’s likely that aliens, if they’re into interstellar communication at all, would be using the radio part of the spectrum.
We know there’s lots of worlds out there. Whether or not there’s little green men or the like on them is something that we still don’t know whether there’s sort of is zero or millions.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: The discovery of alien life has been fodder for Hollywood for decades.
But astronomers who search for extraterrestrial intelligence have had trouble securing funding for their quest.
Cosmologist Professor Paul Davies from Arizona State University has spent his career studying the question of what else is out there.PAUL DAVIES: This is the big unknown in this entire quest. We’ve got no idea how many planets might have life on them. It may be a very, very small number.
But if you don’t look, you don’t find out.
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: And that’s cosmologist Professor Paul Davies ending Bridget Brennan’s report.
