Video: “Life in the Universe – The Breakthrough Initiatives” – Pete Worden

Last summer billionaire Yuri Milner announced he would fund a $100M initiative for the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life. The organization formed to implement the program is called Breakthrough Initiatives and its chairman is Pete Worden, former director of NASA Ames Research Center. Below is a video of an interesting and entertaining SETI Institute talk given by Worden in which he discusses the history of SETI, exoplanets, the possibility of earth-like planets around nearby star systems, the feasibility of interstellar travel, and other topics.

On July 20, 2015, the 46th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation announced in London, UK a new initiative to study life in the universe. The announcement was made by Silicon Valley billionaire Yuri Milner and physicist Steven Hawking. The Breakthrough Initiatives currently consist of two primary elements, Breakthrough Listen which is a $100M renewed search for intelligent extraterrestrial signals, and Breakthrough Message, a global competition with a $1M prize to create, but not send a message representing humanity. S. Pete Worden, the former Center Director of the NASA Ames Research Center, is the Chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. He will talk about these initiatives in the broader context of our search for life in the universe.