British physicist Stephen Hawking has only made his Sina Weibo account on Tuesday but he has already 2 million followers throughout the country.
Many of his followers, including those who are blown away by Hawking's scientific theories, express their respect to the physicist and admire him for his works.
In his first entry in the known media platform on Tuesday, Hawking recalled his trips in China and said that he is happy to receive communication from the Chinese people through social media. After this entry was posted, at least 190,000 shares were reported for this very post alone and it had also accumulated 180,000 comments.
The physicist posted later on an announcement detailing a $100 million space mission with Yuri Milner and Facebook founder mark Zuckerberg. The announcement was done earlier by both Hawking and the Russian billionaire Milner at a news conference in New York's One World Observatory. The post - which was posted in both English and Chinese - was shared 640,000 times and 80,000 comments were recorded by Wednesday.
Hawking is currently working on a project called "Breakthrough Starshot", which would make a laser beam-propelled nanocraft that can travel at least 20% of the speed of light, faster than today's fastest space craft. This nanocraft would then be sent to the Alpha Centauri which is 4.37 light-years away in 20 years.
According to Chen Xuelei, a researcher from the National Astronomical Observatories connected with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hawking's message in Weibo is really going to attract attention in the country even if Hawking's contribution to the project is only symbolic.
Chen also added that. "The project is set to solve some technical problems, such as how to make a spacecraft into the size of a stamp and how to keep the laser beam aimed at the nanocraft over long distances. Solving these problems are not in the expertise of theoretical physicists like Hawking."
