LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists vowed on Monday to scour the universe in the new millennium for signs of extraterrestrial life but quashed any hopes of finding little green men.
They forecast that the nearest neighbors to Earth were likely to be bacteria.
Launching a forum on "Astrobiology'' -- a newly-coined science in which experts from a wide range of disciplines pool their findings to better study evolution -- experts were confident they would find life-forms.
But the "UK Astrobiology Forum'' -- including biologists, physicists and geologists -- warned that any organisms found in the solar system were likely to be very basic, single-celled and possibly long since dead.
"Astrobiology is aimed at discovering an answer to some of the most fundamental questions... Are we alone?,'' forum spokesman and biologist Dr. Don Cowan said.
What we are doing is looking for life on other planets. But we're not looking for little green men or higher forms of life. What we think we are most likely to find will be microbial life, like the bacterial life on this planet.
The forum is non-governmental but affiliated to Britain's National Space Center and hopes to raise funds to carry out experiments both in space and on Earth aimed at unraveling the mysteries of evolution.
The forum is involved in several forthcoming space exploration missions, including a British-led Mars Probe and a project to search for other Earth-like planets.
Scientists are also studying how organisms survive in extremely harsh conditions on Earth -- such as in the ice-packs of Antarctica -- for clues as to how they might weather those on planets such as Mars and Jupiter's satellite Europa.
"It would be most interesting if we could find a biological (system) different from anything we have encountered on earth so we have two to compare and contrast,'' said Colin Pillinger, who is pioneering Britain's "Beagle 2'' Mars probe project.
"Other planets (that support or have supported life) will undoubtedly be found,'' he added.
After NASA's second Mars probe apparently failed earlier this month British scientists may find themselves pioneering the search for life on Mars if they can raise 25 million pounds ($40 million) to build their own Martian probe.
Pillinger hope's to launch the probe in 2003.
NASA has said it may well postpone or cancel its next mission there after billing the apparent loss of its Mars Polar Lander as a crushing blow to its own Mars exploration program.
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