Are we alone? The question is as ancient as humanity itself. There are many unanswered puzzles about life in the Universe: Are there other habitable planets in our galaxy? Could we one day achieve interstellar travel? Can humanity unite to think and act as one civilization in the cosmos?
To investigate these questions, Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner launched the Breakthrough Initiatives, a group of pioneering space science programs. Here, well explore the Initiatives unique missions and discover their connection to Milners Giving Pledge philanthropy and his free online book Eureka Manifesto.
Yuri Milners Commitment to Science Philanthropy
The venture capitalist turned philanthropist, Milner gained his fortune by founding the internet investment company DST Global. Under his leadership, DST Global has become one of the worlds largest tech investment funds with a portfolio that has included several leading internet platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Airbnb, and Spotify.
Growing up in the 1960s, Milners love of cosmologists like Carl Sagan and the compelling idea of life in the Universe led him to study physics to a postgraduate level. He became a theoretical physicist but later decided to pursue a business degree at the Wharton School of Business and a career in the tech industry.
Yuri Milners Giving Pledge and the Breakthrough Prize
Milner never lost his passion for science: In 2012, he and his wife Julia joined the Giving Pledge to publicly commit their financial support to scientific enterprises. Created by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates, the Giving Pledge inspires wealthy individuals to donate to charitable projects.
The Milners Giving Pledge commits them to contributing at least half of their wealth during their combined lifetime to primarily scientific causes. The couples first big act saw them partner with leading tech entrepreneurs Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg, and Anne Wojcicki to establish the Breakthrough Prize.
The worlds biggest award for science, each year, the Breakthrough Prize honors researchers who have made life-changing discoveries in three prize categories: Fundamental Physics, Mathematics, and the Life Sciences. Winners receive $3 million each, plus international praise and acclaim through the Breakthrough Prize televised awards ceremony and public lecture series.
The Milners subsequently launched the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, a global video competition encouraging high school students to engage with complex scientific ideas.
Milner continued to ponder which scientific fields would benefit most from private funding. He returned to an age-old question are we alone in the Universe? and found his answer.
The Breakthrough Initiatives Pioneering Missions
With support from Stephen Hawking, Milner launched the Breakthrough Initiatives in 2015. A set of astronomical and space engineering programs, the Breakthrough Initiatives further the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and investigate the future of humanity as a space-faring civilization.
The five Breakthrough Initiatives include:
- Breakthrough Listen.
- Breakthrough Watch.
- Breakthrough Starshot.
- Breakthrough Message.
- Breakthrough Discuss.
Breakthrough Listen
Breakthrough Listen is a $100 million astronomical project that uses many of Earths most powerful telescopes and state-of-the-art instruments to search for extraterrestrial signals. Since its launch in 2015, Breakthrough Listen has reinvigorated SETI and advanced the capabilities of this scientific field.
The programs scope and scale far surpass any similar searches for evidence of technological alien civilizations previously undertaken. The initiative will span at least 10 years and includes a survey of over one million stars, the center of the Milky Way, the entire galactic plane, and one hundred of our closest galaxies.
In 2022, Breakthrough Listen announced a new collaboration with the MeerKAT array in South Africa. Using the Southern Hemispheres largest and most sensitive radio telescope, Listens number of target searches has grown 1,000-fold.
So far, Breakthrough Listen has:
- Produced an extensive catalog of one of every kind of astronomical exotica in the observable Universe.
- Observed the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua for signs of radio emissions.
- Searched laser light emissions from Boyajians Star, a star with unusual light fluctuations.
- Intercepted an intriguing signal appearing to originate from the direction of Proxima Centauri (a star in the Alpha Centauri system) and rigorously rule it out as a technosignature.
- Conducted the first targeted search for the Wow! Signal (a famous signal of interest intercepted in 1977 but never observed again) using the U.S. Green Bank Telescope and the SETI Institutes Allen Telescope Array.
Breakthrough Watch
Breakthrough Watch uses instruments on Earth and in space to find evidence of primitive cellular life on neighboring planets. The multi-million-dollar mission searches for worlds that have a good chance of hosting life by identifying biosignatures, like planets with the presence of oxygen.
An international team of experts in exoplanet detection and imaging runs Breakthrough Watch. The team has also partnered with world-class scientists and engineers to advance the capabilities of Earths telescopes. A collaboration between Breakthrough Watch and the European Southern Observatory led to the unveiling of a new infrared-measuring instrument at the Very Large Telescope in Chile in 2019.
Breakthrough Starshot
In 2016, Milner launched Breakthrough Starshot with Stephen Hawking and Mark Zuckerberg. The $100 million program is the first serious attempt to design and build an interstellar space probe that could reach Alpha Centauri in a generation.
Alpha Centauri is over four light-years away. With existing technology, it would take humans approximately 6,300 years to make the journey. If Breakthrough Starshot succeeds in creating Starchip an ultra-fast, light-driven nanocraft the program could send a fleet of the tiny, interstellar probes into space at 20% of the speed of light.
The mission would reach Alpha Centauri in around 20 years and take 4 years to notify Earth of its arrival. From there, the nanocraft could beam us images of the systems planets and gather important data, like analysis of magnetic fields.
Starshot faces several technical challenges but has brilliant minds onboard, including interstellar travel expert Philip Lubin, who serves as an advisor to the project. So far, the program has successfully launched and flown several nanocraft precursors called Sprites.
Breakthrough Message
In the form of an international competition, Breakthrough Message encourages debate about how to communicate with possible intelligent extraterrestrials. The competition asks entrants to create a message representing humanity and planet Earth that an advanced alien civilization could read. The prize pool for the winning messages totals $1 million.
For now, Breakthrough Message has no plans to send any transmissions, but the initiative is a great way for the public to engage with the ethics and possibilities of interstellar correspondence.
Breakthrough Discuss
Breakthrough Discuss brings scientists together once a year for a conference that focuses on space exploration and extraterrestrial life.
The 2022 conference theme was Watch this Space! Innovations for a Low-Cost Future. Academics and experts gathered online and at the University of California, Santa Cruz to talk about the search for bio and technosignatures. Attendees also discussed innovations in the field of cosmology and how to reduce costs to expand our reach deep into the solar system.
Previous Breakthrough Discuss conferences have centered on topics like Alpha Centauri and the migration of life across the Universe.
Embracing Humanitys Cosmic Mission
In 2021, Yuri Milner collected some of his ideas about humanitys place in the Universe in Eureka Manifesto: The Mission for Our Civilization. Eureka Manifesto shares the philanthropists perspective on how our species can unite around a common mission to explore and understand our Universe.
His plan to advance this mission includes investing in fundamental sciences and space exploration. The Breakthrough Initiatives represent Milners substantial contributions to science, taking us one giant leap towards the goal of better understanding our place in the cosmos.
About Yuri Milner
An Israeli entrepreneur who founded the successful internet investment firm DST Global, Yuri Milners investments focus on two areas:
- Internet technology.
- Science philanthropy.
In 1985, Milner graduated from university with an advanced degree in theoretical physics. After working as a researcher in quantum field theory, he moved to the U.S. to study business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Convinced that the internet represented the future of investment, Milner founded DST Global to prioritize global internet investments.
In 2012, Milner and his wife joined the Giving Pledge and co-founded the Breakthrough Prize to support the brilliant work of scientists and mathematicians.
As discussed above, he went on to establish the Breakthrough Initiatives, a suite of space science projects seeking answers to the Universes most profound questions, such as: Are there intelligent civilizations beyond Earth? Are there nearby planets that host primitive cellular life? What are humanitys prospects for a future off-planet?
Yuri Milner is the author of Eureka Manifesto, a short book about the future of human civilization and space exploration.