Humanity will encounter alien civilizations within the next two decades, a top Russian astronomer predicted yesterday.
Professor Andrei Finkelstein said that ten percent of the known planets circling suns in the galaxy resemble Earth, and if water can be found on them, then so can life.
He said the aliens would most likely resemble humans with two arms, two legs and a head. They may have different color skin, but even we have that.
Professor Finkelstein's institute runs a program launched in the 1960s to beam out radio signals to outer space.

"The whole time we have been searching for extraterrestrial civilizations, we have mainly been waiting for messages from space and not the other way," he said.
Professor Finkelstein's comments came on the same day a video emerged purporting to show 'a mother ship and its fleet' zipping around in the clouds above a BBC building in central London.
They were caught on camera by a passer-by, and at least one other person who can be seen filming or taking pictures on his camera phone while the video is filmed.
In the footage, the cameraman runs towards the corner of the street where two other men are standing, gazing skywards.
As the camera is pointed upwards, over the BBC's Yalding House, three white dots flash across the sky at great speed in a triangle formation; they are very quickly followed by two similar sized white dots.
Then one larger, brighter and slowly moving disc-shaped white object appears, circles around briefly and zips off.


据英国《每日邮报》28日报道，昨日一名俄罗斯高级天文学家预测，在未来的20年内，人类将与外星文明进行亲密接触。

安德烈•芬克尔斯坦教授提出，星系中环绕太阳运行的已知行星有10%与地球相似，如果在这些星球上能发现水的话，那么也能发现生命的存在。
安德烈•芬克尔斯坦教授认为外星人可能和人类长的非常相像，两只胳膊、两条腿和一个脑袋。 它们可能有不同的肤色，但我们地球人本身也存在不同肤色。

安德烈教授所在的研究所自上个世纪60年代就在进行向外太空发射无线信号的项目。

他说："一直以来我们都在寻找外星文明，我们主要靠等待获取来自外太空的信息，别无它法。"

在安德烈教授发表该言论的当天流传出一段视频，内容为伦敦中部英国广播公司大楼上方的云层中盘旋着一艘"母舰及其舰队"。


视频是由一名路人用照相机拍摄到的， 画面中还能看到另外一个人也在用手机同时摄影或者拍照片。
视频中显示，摄影师正朝着街角跑去，而另外两名路人则驻足仰望天空。

随着镜头向上移动，BBC耶尔丁大楼上方有三个呈三角形状的白点，以超快的速度划破天空，后面紧跟了两个白点。

随后一个更大、更明亮、移动稍慢点的圆盘形状的白色物体在太空缓慢的绕圈移动。

• humanity [hju:´mæniti] n.人类；人性；仁慈 (初中英语单词)
• encounter [in´kauntə] vt.&n.偶然相遇；冲突 (初中英语单词)
• resemble [ri´zembəl] vt.类似，象 (初中英语单词)
• institute [´institju:t] n.学院 vt.建立；设置 (初中英语单词)
• program [´prəugræm] n.说明v.为...安排节目 (初中英语单词)
• mainly [´meinli] ad.主要地；大体上 (初中英语单词)
• waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
• standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
• pointed [´pɔintid] a.尖(锐)的；中肯的 (初中英语单词)
• briefly [´bri:fli] ad.简短地；简略地 (初中英语单词)
• astronomer [ə´strɔnəmə] n.天文学家 (高中英语单词)
• formation [fɔ:´meiʃən] n.形成；构成；排列 (高中英语单词)
• upwards [´ʌpwədz] ad.=upward (英语四级单词)
• triangle [´traiæŋgəl] n.三角(形)；三角关系 (英语四级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)