BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Is anybody listening out there?

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Is anybody listening out there?: "Messages have been sent to a planet 20 light years from Earth in the hope they will reach intelligent alien life.

Some 501 photos, drawings and text messages were transmitted on Thursday by a giant radio-telescope in Ukraine normally used to track asteroids.

The target planet was chosen as it is thought capable of supporting life.

Any reply to the messages - collated through a competition by the social networking website Bebo - would not reach Earth for 40 years.

The competition - A Message From Earth - invited Bebo's 12m users to send in missives they would like extra-terrestrials to receive."