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Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has given a vote of no confidence to continued life on Earth.The famed scientist, known for his mind-bending theories on space, time, and black holes, says the human race must flee this planet and colonize space within the next century if it hopes to survive.The website BigThink.com lays out his case, outlining a number of apocalyptic scenarios in which humans would become extinct.With the human population reaching unsustainable levels and natural resources continuing to dwindle, the Earth is becoming less and less of a habitable place, the site says. And continued Geo-political tensions in the near future also add the possibility of cataclysmic nuclear conflicts. And, if that doesn't do us in, the aging sun will get us as it expands and dries up all of the Earth's water before swallowing the planet -- albeit that final event is set to happen in roughly 7.6 billion years.All scary stuff, indeed."I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space," Hawking tells Big Think. "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million."Hawking adds that the human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. That is, we'd be better off if we spread out to many different colonies in order to avoid being killed off all at once in one sweeping, unforeseen event, like a meteor strike.And while Hawking might come off as a bit of a downer, he says he's an optimist about the human race. He just sees a bleak future for us on Earth.So if we can't continue to live on this planet, where do we go?Therein lies the problem. The next closest star outside our solar system, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.2 light years away.

Traveling that distance in the hopes of finding something, anything, would be a journey that would take approximately 50,000 years using today's rocket technology.One man, however, is looking closer to home. Entrepreneur Elon Musk, who is CEO of a private space transport company called SpaceX, says he plans on retiring to Mars .Like Hawking, the 39-year-old Musk believes humanity's future lies in our ability to colonize other planets. And the red planet, with its atmosphere and availability of frozen water, is by far the most habitable outside our own. It is Musk's hope that his company's rocket technology can help turn the human race into a space-faring people one day."It's important that we attempt to extend life beyond Earth now," Musk tells the UK's Guardian. "It is the first time in the four billion-year history of Earth that it's been possible and that window could be open for a long time -- hopefully it is -- or it could be open for a short time. We should err on the side of caution and do something now."

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