Stephen Hawking's voice will be broadcast into space in one final tribute to the British physicist who revolutionized our understanding of black holes.
Stephen Hawking died in March at age 76 after living for decades with the motor neuron disease Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS, which took his voice.
He will be laid to rest among Britain's greatest scientists Friday, when his ashes are buried in Westminster Abbey, between the graves of Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton, following a memorial service.
To mark the occasion, a European Space Agency satellite dish in Spain will project Stephen Hawking's voice, which has been set to music by the Greek composer Vangelis, into space and toward the nearest black hole, Time reported.
"It is a message of peace and hope, about unity and the need for us to live together in harmony on this planet," said his daughter, Lucy Hawking, according to USA Today.
She described the gesture as "beautiful and symbolic," noting that it "creates a link between our father's presence on this planet, his wish to go into space and his explorations of the universe in his mind."
Stephen Hawking's memorial service will be marked by readings from the British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who played him in a BBC drama, as well as astronaut Tim Peake, BBC noted.
Also scheduled to give tributes at the event are astronomer Royal Martin Rees, and Prof Hawking's collaborator and Nobel prize winner, Kip Thorne.
Hawking was diagnosed at 21 with Lou Gehrig’s disease, and was confined to an electric wheelchair for much of his adult life.
He redefined cosmology and showed that the universe had a beginning by describing how Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity eventually breaks down when time and space are traced back to the Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago.
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