Billionaire Russian investor Yuri Milner and British cosmologist Stephen Hawking on Tuesday announced an ambitious new space initiative for a mission to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth. The goal is to send the light-propelled mini-space vehicles -- each no bigger than a cell phone -- to Alpha Centauri, which is 4.37 light years away, or 25 trillion miles, from Earth. How do we make this great leap?" Milner, who is planning to initially commit $100 million to the project, told a press conference in Manhattan.



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