Jodrell Bank began investigations at the weekend to locate life on other planets.

Over the next three weeks, the Lovell Telescope will be used to comb the solar system.

"Astronomers expect other civilisations are most likely to be found on planets in orbit around stars similar to our sun," said Ian Morison, coordinator of Jodrell's investigations.

Lovell is the second largest fully-steerable radio telescope in the world which makes it exceptionally sensitive to radio signals.

In the past messages from outer space have been difficult to confirm and signals have often been blamed on more down-to-earth signals.

But Jodrell's latest project will be combined with another telescope in Puerto Rico which will prevent that mistake.

"Local signals are eliminated by making simultaneous observations with the two telescopes," said Mr Morison.

"Due to their transatlantic separation a signal has to come from a very great distance for both of the detection systems to be triggered at once."

The latest search will be followed by several more sessions over the next couple of years.

"If an extra-terrestrial signal was detected it would be one of the most dramatic discoveries ever made," said Professor Andrew Lyne, director at Jodrell Bank.

"We are glad we can make a contribution to this exciting scientific quest."

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