To survive, man must leave Earth

We are running out of space, says Hawking

London, May 20: Professor Stephen Hawking says humans need to find a new planet to live on within 100 years. He has again called on humanity to redouble its efforts to colonise other planets before the Earth becomes uninhabitable. The search for other planets to colonise should start now, he believes.

Speaking at The Royal Society in London ahead of the Starmus IV festival, Professor Hawking said he and others will elaborate on this view at the science and music festival to be held in Trondheim, Norway.

At the press conference in London, the theoretical physicist said: “I strongly believe we should start seeking alternative planets for possible habitation,” adding that “We are running out of space on Earth and we need to break through the technological limitations preventing us from living elsewhere in the universe.”

Prof. Hawking is not alone in advocating a multi-planet species. SpaceX chief Elon Musk has plans to launch space colonies in the next 100years and Nasa has said its Mars missions could help to put humans permanently on other planets, wired.co.uk reported.

He believes that climate change will make most of Earth too hot to grow crops as the population expands. “I am not alone in this view and many of my colleagues will make further comments on this at Starmus next month,” he said.

The festival next month will bring leading scientists, rock stars and other celebrities together at Trondheim, Norway. They will include Apollo moonwalkers Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt, scientists Professor Brian Cox and a line-up of 11 Nobel prizewinners, plus rock stars Brian May, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Rick Wakeman and Steve Vai, The Sun reported.

We are running out of space on Earth and we need to break through the technological limitations preventing us from living elsewhere in the universe. — STEPHEN HAWKING, Theoretical physicist