Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner are teaming up in a $100 million hunt for alien life that will rely on a fleet of postage stamp-sized spacecraft to explore the universe.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will also join Milner and Hawking on the board of Breakthrough Starshot, a philanthropic initiative to focus on space exploration and the search for life in the universe.

Astronomers believe an Earth-like planet could exist within the “habitable zones” of Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to Earth, located 25 trillion miles (or 4.37 light-years) away.

Breakthrough Starshot hopes to launch thousands of the tiny, light-propelled spacecraft — called nanocrafts — with the goal of reaching the star system in twenty years.

READ MORE HERE