Mid Day Daily

Monday, January 25, 2021
Log in
  • Home
  • National & International
  • Business & Financials
  • Technology
  • Health
  • Science
  • About Us
    • Our Staff
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy GDPR
    • Terms of Use
  • Latest News
    • Sloths Were Declared the Slowest Animals on Earth
    • Facebook’s Messenger Will Give You the 411 on Non-Friends
    • Fun Facts About the Coconut Crab
    • The Coyote Hunting in Wisconsin might be Banned
    • Autism Was Genetically Introduced In Monkeys
    • Tully Monster Has Many More Mysteries Left To Offer
    • Mom Claims Daughter Was Forced To Get Naked To Pass Exam In School
    • What Happens When Two Planets Collide?
    • FDA Approves the BrainPort Vision Device That Gives Hope To The Blind
    • Two Cretaceous Plankton-Eating Fish Species Were Discovered
    • Columbia University Researchers Store Computer Information on DNA Strand

Pages

  • About Midday Daily
  • Contact Us
  • Our Staff
  • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Terms of Use

Recent Posts

  • Indiana Jones 5 Won’t Open in 2020 After All June 29, 2018
  • ‘Oumuamua is Actually a Comet, Not an Asteroid (Study) June 28, 2018
  • Best Evidence of Alien Life on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus, Found (Study) June 28, 2018
  • Jeremy Irons to Star in HBO’s Watchmen Reboot June 27, 2018
  • The Fermi Paradox: We Might Be Alone in the Universe (Study) June 26, 2018
  • The Strawberry Moon and Who It Will Affect June 26, 2018
  • Tom Holland Reveals Spider-Man: Homecoming Sequel Title June 25, 2018
You are here: Home / Archives for Habitable planets

Hawking Joins Russian Billionaire’s Efforts to Find Habitable Planets

April 14, 2016 By Amanda Lane Leave a Comment

'Stephen Hawking'

Stephen Hawking will be part of an ambitious space exploration project funded by a Russian tech billionaire.

Famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking agreed to join Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Starshot project, a $100 million endeavor to detect potentially habitable planets outside our solar system.

The Russian entrepreneur with a background in physics is not at his first attempt to find alien life. Over the years, he has sponsored various space ventures including the Breakthrough Listen project, which is designed to comb the universe for alien life over the next 10 years.

On Tuesday, Milner disclosed another ambitious plan in New York. The Russian will invest $100 million in Breakthrough Starshot, after he had put the same sum into the Breakthrough Listen project.

Breakthrough Starshot will have Stephen Hawking on board in its effort to find exoplanets that may support life. For this goal, the team will develop a fleet of “light-propelled nanocrafts,” which will be instructed to make an interstellar trip to the Alpha Centauri star system. The mission is expected to take 24 years.

Milner said that the project is ‘doable in our lifetime.’ He noted that he has hired top space engineers and scientists from NASA and other agencies. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg reportedly will be part of the board of directors.

Yet, Milner is not the only tech billionaire with an appetite for space exploration. SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk proudly announced that his private spaceflight company has successfully retrieved the first stage of a rocket from ocean last Friday.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has plans for deep space exploration missions involving humans, and even land people on Mars. But Milner’s projects are much more ambitious.

The Russian internet billionaire plans to use state-of-the-art technology including microchips and lasers to power his robotic fleet. Alpha Centauri is a the closest star system to our own, located 4.73 light-years away, and which may host habitable planets.

Pete Worden, a former senior researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center, who is involved in the project, said that the team plans to overcome all engineering challenges in order to allow scientists to do something ‘really amazing.’ He explained that it would take 30,000 years to get to Alpha Centauri with modern-day spacecrafts.

But with butterfly-sized spacecrafts the journey could take just 20 years. The robotic spaceships will be fueled by solar power and laser technology. Engineers are now working on boosting the speed of the robotic spacecrafts to 134 million mph, which is one-fifth of the speed of light.

Image Source: YouTube

Filed Under: Science Tagged With: Alpha Centauri, Habitable planets, SpaceX, Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 10 other subscribers

Recent Articles

USPS van

Chinese Drug Dealers Shipping Drugs to U.S. via Postal Service

January 28, 2018 By Dean Lamori

Marlboro cigarette packs

Philip Morris Wants to Help You Quit Smoking

January 6, 2018 By Dean Lamori

Drugs and money

Drug Company Sued for Bribing Doctors to Prescribe Potent Opioid

December 24, 2017 By Dean Lamori

Smartphone user sitting on sidewalk

Calif. Health Dept: Excess Smartphone Use Can Cause Brain Cancer

December 17, 2017 By Dean Lamori

jared kushner

Kushner Plans to Revamp 666 Fifth Avenue Skyscraper, Partner Isn’t Supportive

November 2, 2017 By Tom Hager

elon musk

Elon Musk Shares Progress He Made with Boring Company on Twitter

October 30, 2017 By John Cooper

starbucks mugs

Starbucks Takes Halloween Seriously with New Zombie Frappuccino

October 28, 2017 By Kurt Cottrell

ecigarette

New York to Treat eCigarettes Same Way as Regular Cigarettes in Public Indoor Areas

October 26, 2017 By Tom Hager

amazon box

Amazon Warehouse Delivered Couple’s Requested Storage Containers with 65 Pounds of Weed

October 25, 2017 By Kurt Cottrell

ibm offices

IBM’s Q3 Report Encourages Greater Sales Expectations for the First Time in Years

October 19, 2017 By Kurt Cottrell

dubai police supercars

Dubai Police to Patrol the City from Above Thanks to Multirotor Hoverbikes

October 16, 2017 By John Cooper

marketing stunt for rick and morty

Woman Received Volkswagen Car for One Legendary Szechuan Sauce Pack from McDonald’s

October 14, 2017 By Amanda Lane

honeywell center

Honeywell to Turn Two Units into Publicly Traded Companies by 2019

October 12, 2017 By Tom Hager

self-driving car

New AI Project Will Help Autonomous Cars See What’s Around Corners

October 11, 2017 By Sam Doliente

Categories

  • Business & Financials
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • National & International
  • Nature
  • Science
  • Technology
  • U.S.
  • World

Copyright © 2021 MidDayDaily.com

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Contact

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more.