breakthroughlisten

Latest

  • AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

    LIGO team wins $3 million prize for gravitational wave discovery

    by 
    Andrew Dalton
    Andrew Dalton
    05.04.2016

    The team of scientists and engineers who confirmed the existence of gravitational waves earlier this year have just nabbed a handsome $3 million reward as part of a special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

  • Internet investor pours $100 million into the search for alien life

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    07.20.2015

    The hunt for extraterrestrial life just got a big leg up. Internet investor Yuri Milner and his Breakthrough Prize Foundation will spend $100 million supporting Breakthrough Listen, a project that will use radio telescopes, lasers and other equipment to search for alien signals. The cash will not only guarantee equipment time, but lead to dedicated processing equipment that could dramatically improve the discovery process. Researchers should not only cover several times more sky and radio wavelengths, but inspect both in greater detail and at higher speeds -- the radio telescope searches should run 100 times faster, even as they tackle five times as many wavelengths.