Tiny rockets are going to be sent into space to study the far universe in the most ambitious space exploration project in history.

Scientists including Stephen Hawking and backers such as internet investor Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg will send “nano craft” deep into space to explore the most remote regions that humans have ever seen, by far.

The hugely ambitious project could reveal deep secrets of the universe and will allow people to photograph one of the most likely places to hold life on other worlds.

Professor Hawking said at the event: "What makes us unique is transcending our limits. Gravity pins us to the ground, but I just flew to America.

"How do we transcend these limits? With our minds and our machines.

"The limit that confronts us now is the great void between us and the stars. But now we can transcend it, with light beams, light sails, and the lightest spacecraft ever built. Today we commit to this next great leap into the cosmos, because we are human and our nature is to fly.”

The Starshot Project hopes to get the tiny robots out to the Alpha Centauri star system, 25 trillion miles away. Getting there through normal means would take 30,000 years – but the new project hopes that using the tiny rockets will allow them to get there in just 20.

Scientists think that the Alpha Centauri system might well have an Earth-like planet that could be found in its “habitable zones”. The craft will be able to take pictures of those – a potential way that they might find life on other worlds.

The crafts will be “gram-scale nano craft”, according to Yuri Milner, which will make their way through space using a “sail pushed by a light beam”. Their design will allow them to fly at 25 per cent of light speed.

Those craft will be able to send back images of possible planets and other scientific data, according to the scientists behind it.

"The human story is one of great leaps,” Dr Milner said. “Today we are preparing for the next great leap – to the stars.

"Can we literally reach the stars, and can we do it in our lifetime?"

The tiny rockets are made up of computers that can be mounted to a tiny “wafer”. Shrinking computer components mean that all of the necessary parts – cameras, thrusters, power supply and navigation equipment – can all be mounted on a tiny plate that will be a fully functional space probe.

Before those are built, the project will have to create all of the important parts on the ground. That includes the construction of a light-beamer that can power the rockets and a “mothership” that will be able to carry them all out into space and launch them.

Because of economies of scale and the decreasing price of computer components, the team will eventually be able to send out the rockets for just a few hundred thousand dollars, they said.

Kalashnikov ammunition and Islamist propaganda videos were seized by French police in raids on Sunday after shutting down a mosque in the Paris suburbs, according to French authorities.

Linked to the traditionalist Salafist branch of Islam, the prayer hall in Lagny-sur-Marne, around 18 miles east of the capital, was shut down last Wednesday following a major police operation.

It was the third mosque in France to be closed as part of state of emergency clamp down after the jihadist attacks on Paris on November 13 that killed 130.
 
During raids linked to the mosque, police found "7.62mm ammunition for a Kalashnikov rifle and propaganda videos" for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), according to the prefect, the highest state representative, of the Seine-and-Marne department.

The locations of the raids were not disclosed.

A revolver and jihadist documents had already been found during searches at the homes of the mosque leaders, Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, had said last week.

The operation resulted in 22 travel bans and nine house arrests for "radicalised individuals".

Police also found recordings of religious chants "glorifying the martyrs of jihad linked to the terrorist organisation Jabhat al-Nusra", the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, the prefecture added.

Regulars at the mosque now conduct prayers at a nearby sports pitch.

Pierre Tebaldini, the local centrist mayor, played down the discoveries, saying that nothing was found in the mosque itself to link it to radical Islam.

"Why all this fuss? Is there a link to the regional elections (in France)?," he asked, saying that police found little more than an old pistol and some "prayer chants in Arabic for children".

"Maybe they want to reassure the French, but rather they are discrediting the government's action, above all among Muslims," he said.

JB) Yes, people living in red states are actually this stupid. [in reference to a news story]

(W) EDIT: We apologize to all the liberal, smart people who, for whatever reasons, live in the red states as a minority. We acknowledge that it's tough to live blue in red states, and we salute you for having to deal with your neighbors daily! The comments following Beth Stoneman's thread below rightfully indicated that our lede, indeed can be read as an inflammatory generalization. We promise to get better, and avoid those... but can you please, ramp up you efforts on educating your neighbors?

A man has been arrested after a popular Muslim shopkeeper was stabbed to death by another Muslim in a religiously motivated attack just hours after he had posted a message wishing 'a very happy Easter to my beloved Christian nation'.

Asad Shah, 40, was set upon with a knife and had his head stamped on in a shocking attack outside his Glasgow newsagents shop just after 9pm last night.

A police investigation has been launched into the full details surrounding Mr Shah's death, with officers pursuing a line of enquiry that the attack was 'racially prejudiced'.

Police Scotland confirmed to MailOnline that everyone currently involved in the investigation was a Muslim following the arrest of a man aged 32.

The appalling attack came just hours after deeply religious Mr Shah, who was keen to reach out from the Muslim community to Christian neighbours, posted heartfelt Easter messages on social media.

The 40-year-old was today due to be hosting a meeting with Christian friends about the importance of Easter.
Mr Shah, who is originally from the Pakistani city of Rabwah, posted his Easter wishes on Facebook at 5.10pm last night - just four hours before he was murdered.

The post, the last one he made before his death, said: 'Good Friday and a very Happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation.'

And he added: 'Let's follow the real footstep of beloved holy Jesus Christ and get the real success in both worlds.'
In previous posts, he spoke out eloquently against violence and hatred and called for 'unconditional real love for all mankind'.