A computer program that could help catch and ever translates from aliens in outer space has been started by a British scientist.

    If aliens are discovered one day, scientists fear their language may make it possible to understand them. But John Elliott of needs Metropolitan University in Britain has come up with a program that can figure out the structure(结构)of their language. He thinks that's the first step in understanding what they are saying.

    Dr. Elliott's program would compare an alien language to a database (数据库)of 60 different languages in the world to look for a similar structure. He believes that even an alien language will have its own structure. Language has to be structured in a certain way, or it will be harder to use, he told New Scientist magazine.

    Research had shown that it is possible to know if a signal(信号)carries a language rather than a picture or music. Dr. Elliott has gone a step further by finding a way to pick out what might be words and sentences. Because languages have different word orders, Dr. Elliott has set up a library of the sentence structures of 60 human languages.

    If a message is received from outer space, it could be compared against this database. Scientist would then be able to see if ti's similar to any human language, or a mix of the language.

    However, Dr. Elliott also said that in order to translate what the aliens are actually saying, it may still be necessary to have a code book.