Stephen Hawking dies at 76

Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76. The renowned British scientist died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in England in the early hours of this morning.

“He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years,” said Lucy, Robert and Tim, his children, in a statement.

Hawking was attacked by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) when he was 21 and stunned doctors by living with the normally fatal illness for more than 50 years.

He was the best-known theoretical physicist of his time, one of science’s biggest celebrities since Albert Einstein. His book, “A Brief History of Time,” became an international bestseller.

Hawking, who was born Jan. 8, 1942 in Oxford, England, had a severe attack of pneumonia in 1985 that left him breathing through a tube, forcing him to communicate through an electronic voice synthesizer that gave him his distinctive robotic monotone.

Stephen Hawking has recently stunned the world by saying “humans need to leave earth”. He urged countries to send astronauts to the Moon by 2020 and Mars by 2025 to ‘elevate humanity’ as he felt that humans need to leave the Earth to survive for another million years.

Stephen Hawking was all set to travel to space in Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline. In 2007, Hawking flew into zero gravity aboard a specially-modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft.