Story highlights Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking announced the ambitious Breakthrough Starshot project on Tuesday

The project would send hundreds of tiny space probes to explore Alpha Centauri, our nearest star system

(CNN) Imagine hundreds of spacecraft the size of a butterfly, propelled by light beams at record-shattering speeds and journeying to distant stars 4.37 light years away -- far deeper into space than human-built probes have ever ventured.

It's arguably the most ambitious space exploration project in history, and it may not be completed in our lifetimes.

But if anyone can pull it off, it's these guys.

Some of the world's most brilliant minds, including physicist Stephen Hawking and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, are behind a $100 million program to send tiny "nanocraft" to explore Alpha Centauri, our nearest star system.

"Today, we commit to this next great leap into the cosmos," Hawking said alongside billionaire entrepreneur Yuri Milner at a press conference Tuesday in New York . "Because we are human, and our nature is to fly."

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