As a memorial service for Hawking was held in London on Friday, it was revealed that Vangelis — famed for composing the score to 1981 movie Chariots of Fire — had produced original music which would go into the heavens with the pioneering scientist’s words.

The music and speech will be beamed by satellite after the memorial service which is being held at London’s Westminster Abbey.

Hawking — who suffered from motor neurone disease — died on March 14 this year, aged 76.

His daughter Lucy, in a statement, described the recording as “a message of peace and hope, about unity and the need for us to live together in harmony on this planet”.

The European Space Agency will beam the words and Vangelis’ music towards the nearest black hole to Earth, which is called 1A 0620-00.

Hawking’s ashes will be placed beside the remains of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin at the abbey.

In 1998, Hawking holidayed in Greece on the island of Samos, famed as the birthplace of the mathematician Pythagoras, describing it as “paradise on Earth”.