Stephen Hawking and Mark Zuckerberg launch alien-hunting mission

Named ‘Breakthrough Starshot’, the mission will send tiny nanocraft pushed by beams of light to the Alpha Centauri star system.

The system, which is 25 trillion miles away, will take twenty years for the alien-hunting equipment to reach.

With the distance equivalent to 4.37 light years, today’s fastest spacecraft would take 30,000 years to get there.

Milner said: "For the first time in human history, we can do more than look at the stars, we can reach them.”

Stephen Hawking said: "55 years ago today, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

"Today, we are preparing for the next great leap.

"Earth is a wonderful place, but it might not last forever."Sooner or later, we must look to the stars.

"Breakthrough Starshot is a very exciting first step on that journey.

"With light beams, light sails and the lightest spacecraft ever built we can launch a mission to Alpha Centauri within a generation.”

Excited scientists are hoping that the star system will be home to alien life never before seen by human technology.

(dailystar.co.uk)