Stephen Hawking says it's time to commit to search for life beyond Earth

[SOUND] World renowned theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and best selling author, Stephen Hawking, is throwing his support behind a $100 million project to contact extraterrestrial life, scanning millions of nearby stars. The project is called BREAKTHROUGH. Through initiatives, and is funded by Russian entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner. Breakthrough initiatives will utilize two large telescopes, the 100 meter Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the 64 meter Parkes Telescope In New South Wales, Australia. According to Milner, the project is the biggest alien hunting exercise ever undertaken and will scan fives times the radio spectrum of previous sky-scanning programs, and do it with 100 times greater speed with equipment that is 50 times more sensitive. Stephen Hawking is known For some of his past quotes on the matter of aliens, including this quote from Naked Science on the National Geographic Channel in 2004, where he said, The history of advanced races meeting more primitive people on this planet is not very happy and they were of the same species, I think it would be a disaster. Well it seems like Mr. Hawking is changing his tune with respect to finding aliens Speaking on Monday at the breakthrough initiatives launch event. Somewhere in the cosmos, perhaps, intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours, aware of what they mean. Or, do our lights wander a lifeless cosmos? It's time to commit to finding the answer, to search for life beyond Earth. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]