British cosmologist Stephen Hawking delivers a video message AFP/Getty

Professor Stephen Hawking has come out with another of his cheery predictions of apocalypse – and this time, he reckons the world’s going to turn into a ‘ball of fire’.

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Speaking via radio link in Beijing, the physicist says that soaring population and demands for energy will turn the world into a sizzling ball of fire by 2600.

Prof Hawking says our only chance is to escape our planet – and says his Breakthrough Starshot project could be the first step on the way.

Professor Hawking said that he hoped that tiny spaceships propelled by beams of light could reach Alpha Centauri within his audience’s lifetime.


Breakthrough Starshot Initiative, a plan to send a fleet of tiny spacecraft to Alpha Centauri. Credit: Breakthrough Initiatives

Hawking says, ‘Such a system could reach Mars in less than an hour, or reach Pluto in days, pass Voyager in under a week and reach Alpha Centauri in just over 20 years.’



Professor Hawking has championed the ‘Breakthrough Starshot’ for a project to send a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri in 20 years.

Backed by Russian Internet billionaire Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg, the microscopic spacecraft would travel at a fifth of the speed of light.

The nanocraft, powered by a sail pushed by a light beam, could potentially travel the distance over 1,000 times faster and make the journey in 20 years.