Gazing up at the starry night sky can really put things into perspective. The heavens make us realize how truly small we are: just tiny specks in our huge universe. But are we alone? This question is similar in merit to the elusive, 'What is the meaning of life?' and, 'How can we achieve happiness?' – they have yet to be answered, and it is uncertain if they ever will be. To some, it is unfathomable to think that the Pale Blue Dot that we call home can be the only place in the vast interstellar space that harbors intelligent life. Today, science is catching up in its ability to answer the questions that we previously thought impossible to explore. Twenty-first century technology enables our generation to survey the heavens in a manner that they have never been looked at before.
On July 20th, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner announced that he is investing $100 million into the new project Breakthrough Initiatives, which aims to find intelligent extraterrestrial life. Milner says that the project is "the most powerful, comprehensive and intensive scientific search ever undertaken for signs of intelligent life beyond our planet". The initiative is projected to be 1,000 times more powerful than any other search that has been previously conducted, which can be attributed in part to the use of two of the world's most powerful telescopes, and the ability to cover ten times more of the heavens than other searches. Fully backed by renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and other prominent British scientists, the project will use unprecedented computer capacity to examine 1 million of the closest stars to Earth in order to identify if any of them harbor conditions that are suitable to support life. In response to the birth of the Breakthrough Initiative and the yet unanswered question, "Are we alone?" Hawking responds, "We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know."
One amazing aspect of Breakthrough Initiatives is that the entire project is open-sourced, meaning that all information from the project will be freely available to the public. More mind-power will be applied to contribute to the search, and scientists and engineers will have the opportunity to analyze the data and create their own programs to interpret the newly obtained information.
The wide scope of this project also raises new questions. What happens if we actually find other forms of intelligent life? Do we attempt to make contact with them? Would we invite them to our home planet? Who would make these decisions? Even if it was concluded that there are not other forms of life in the universe, it would provide more insight into our very existence. If life (and minds) exist only on the Pale Blue Dot that is our Earth, it would be a breakthrough discovery in itself. The Breakthrough Initiative provides a new opportunity that could open doors we once had never dreamed to be possible.
It is hard to imagine that we are alone in this vast universe. How could it be that Earth is the only planet that harbors a form of intelligent life? Maybe there actually are forms of life out there that are even more intelligent than us, and they simply haven't used their time or energy to contact us. Or perhaps they have yet to find a way to communicate with us. During a time when there is much focus on politics, equality and pop culture, it is refreshing to know that there is still a genuine curiosity and passion to explore the very universe that we live in. Milner is confident that if there are other forms of intelligent life in interstellar space, we are going to find it.
