Or is Stephen Hoawking a cheeky sod...

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Move to new planet, says Hawking

The human race must move to a planet beyond our Solar System to protect the future of the species, physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.

He told the BBC that life could be wiped out by a nuclear disaster or an asteroid hitting the planet.

But the Cambridge academic added: "Once we spread out into space and establish colonies, our future should be safe."...

...blah blah blah...

...The physicist was not given many years to live when he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in the 1960s, aged 22.

He said since then he had "learned not to look too far ahead, but to concentrate on the present".

"I am not afraid of death but in no hurry to die," he said.

"My next goal is to go into space; maybe Richard Branson will help me."

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group has contracted a firm to design and build a passenger spaceship.

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