|
By Randy Chen (AXcess News) Hong Kong - At a press conference here, Professor Stephen Hawking told reporters that in order for humans to avoid extinction they will have to colonize the solar system. Hawking, one of the most respected physicists in the world, said mankind faces extinction here on Earth, either by some man-made disaster such as global warming or a meteor and that the only way to assure human survival is to populate other planets. "It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," Prof. Hawking said. The physicist believes that man can have a colony on the moon in 20 years and Mars within 40, but that unless we move into exploring planets in other parts of the galaxy we won't find anything as good as Earth. Hawking's comments while in Hong Kong are not the first time the physicist has said that man should explore other parts of the solar system. In 2001, when he was promoting his book The Universe in a Nutshell, he warned that a manmdae doomsday vrius was likely to destroy mankind before the end of the millennium. This time around, Hawking's was promoting a chlidren's book he is planning to co-author with his daughter. But Hawking is not alone in the theory of populating other planets. Many believe that within 100 years man will have to explore other regions of the galaxy and find new planets for mankind to inhabit if it is to survive.
| 
