planets for centuries.

That's the view of Dr. John Billingham, NASA's man in charge of "The Search for Extraterrestrial Life''.

Dr. Billingham spoke in Dockyard on Wednesday night about the project, which started last year after 25 years in the planning.

The US Government is treating The Search for Extraterrestrial Life so seriously it is providing $12 million a year for the next decade.

Scientists are using radio telescopes all over the world to listen to microwave frequencies for transmissions from other intelligent life in the universe.

Dr. Billingham said that it was possible that earth had been receiving information for billions of years. "We think civilisations have been around for six to seven billion years, while earth has only been here for four to five billion,'' he said.

"We are comparatively young in terms of our civilisation and it is our belief that there will be much more advanced life.'' The main problem with identifying possible microwave messages from outer space is that they are mingling on earth with millions of our own radio, television and communications, he added.

Microwave is relatively unused at present, and it is highly probable that advanced alien races will have found the same use for it, he explained.

Dr. Billingham said: "The worst problem is radiated from ourselves, radio frequency interference. We are sending out millions of signals all the time.

"We have to be very careful not to announce to the media that we have found a message from intelligent life and then discover it was a new Russian satellite.'' If a possible message was found, Dr. Billingham said it could take years before it could be confirmed as a genuine extra-terrestrial communication.

"It could be a long search. This is not something that will produce an answer in a year or two. We do not know where the transmitters are or the strength of their messages.'' One method used in the search for extraterrestrial life, which has now been put on hold, involved looking for microbiological life in places such as Mars.

Dr. Billingham said that consideration had been given to sending 100 people to the nearest star system, but using present propulsion methods this would mean a round trip of 40,000 years, at an incredible fuel cost. Boldly going where no man had gone before, would probably mean being bypassed by technology, he said.

And reports of unidentified flying objects containing extraterrestrial life were improbable, according to the scientist, because of the incredible distances involved.

So searching the microwave-lengths for messages remained the cheapest and quickest method of making contact.

"There is a possibility that we can pick up transmissions used for a world's own purpose like television and radio,'' said Dr. Billingham.

"This is called eavesdropping, and there is a theory that other intelligent life may have tuned in to earth's television and decided not to come.

"But if a world is as advanced as ours, they may be sending out messages hoping someone will pick them up.'' Dr. Billingham's lecture coincided with a visit by a group of astronomers on board the cruise ship Meridian , as part of a Franklin Institute Science Museum project, from Philadelphia.

The lecture was organised by the Astronomical Society of Bermuda and the astronomers were given an evening of star gazing under the guidance of Dr.

Morley Nash.