This March 7, 2011 file image provided by NASA shows the International Space Station. The six space station astronauts took shelter in lifeboats Tuesday, June 28, 2011, when a piece of orbiting junk came dangerously close. The unidentified object came within 1,100 feet of the space station — closer than any piece of space junk ever, said NASA's space operations chief, Bill Gerstenmaier.(Agencies)

Russian scientists expect humanity to encounter alien civilizations within the next two decades, a top Russian astronomer predicted on Monday.

"The genesisof life is as inevitable as the formation of atoms... Life exists on other planets and we will find it within 20 years," Andrei Finkelstein, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Applied Astronomy Institute, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Speaking at an international forum dedicated to the search for extraterrestriallife, Finkelstein said 10 percent of the known planets circling suns in the galaxy resemble Earth.

If water can be found there, then so can life, he said, adding that 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," he said.

Finkelstein's institute runs a program launched in the 1960s at the height of the Cold War space race to watch for and 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.

(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)

俄罗斯一位权威天文学家周一预测，在未来二十年内，人类将能和外星人相遇。

俄罗斯国际文传电讯社引述俄社会科学院应用天文学研究所负责人安德烈芬克尔斯坦的话说：“生命起源犹如原子的形成一样不可避免……其他星球上也存在生命，我们会在20年内找到它。”

芬克尔斯坦在一个以外星生命探索为主题的国际论坛上表示，银河系中绕恒星公转的已知行星中，有10%的行星与地球类似。

他指出，如果能在这些星球上找到水源，就可以找到生命。他还说，外星人很可能与人类相似，有两只胳膊，两条腿，一个脑袋。

他说，“他们可能有不同的肤色，但我们也如此。”

芬克尔斯坦所在的研究所在20世纪60年代冷战时期的太空竞赛高峰期发起了一个向外太空收发无线电信号的计划，该计划目前还在进行中。

他说道：“一直以来我们都在搜寻外星文明，不过基本上除了等待来自外太空的信息外，我们还别无他法。”

来源：中国日报   编辑：许银娟