Scientists have claimed that new radio telescopes may be able to pick up TV transmissions from alien civilisations.

Any aliens within 1,000 light years of Earth could be detected by spotting their leaking television signals.

One of the first of the new-generation telescopes is the Low Frequency Array being built in the Netherlands.

It is equipped to receive radio waves emitted by hydrogen molecules in the early universe.

Although these signals originally had short wavelengths, the expanding universe has stretched them over time.

Today they have wavelengths of several metres, which means they fall within the range of TV, radio, and military radar transmissions.

Scientist Dr Abraham Loeb, from Harvard University in the US, said: "By a happy accident, the telescopes will be sensitive to just the kind of radio emission that our civilisation is leaking into space."

If ET is producing similar signals, these will be visible as "spikes" in the radio spectrum, a science magazine reported.

But whether aliens are discovered depends crucially on their stage of development.

To pick up TV or radio signals from an alien civilisation, it would have to be about as advanced as our own.

( I wonder what kind of programmes the aliens would watch :question: -
Maybe they just tune in to us and have a good