The voice of well-known physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in March, will be broadcast into space towards the nearest black hole to Earth.
The broadcast, planned after his funeral today, is in honor of Hawking’s research, which played a key role in our current understanding of black holes.
His words, which his daughter says are “a message of peace and hope, about unity and the need for us to live together in harmony on this planet,” will be set to an original score by the composer Vangelis, reports NPR. It will be broadcast via satellite in the direction of 1A 0620-00, a black hole that is in a binary system with an orange dwarf star.
Hawking lost his voice due to Lou Gehrig’s disease, a neuromuscular disease also known as ALS. He spoke with a computer-generated voice for decades, which will be the voice used for his final sendoff.
Hawking, who died at age 76, will be interred at Westminster Abbey in London between the remains of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. One thousand members of the public, who were selected through a lottery system, will attend the ceremony.