Two respected astrophysicists have claimed that aliens may already have tried to contact the Earth.

A pair of researchers said extraterrestrials are probably searching the heavens using the same techniques as us: watching for the shadow of a planet moving in front of a star.

"Intelligent observers... could have identified Earth as a habitable, even as a living world long ago and we could be receiving their broadcasts today," René Heller and Ralph Pudritz wrote in the journal Astrobiology.

If aliens are out there, they will probably only be able to see our planet at a certain point in its orbit around the Sun, when it "transits" in front of the star.

Typically stupid Brit tabloid headline.To read more, click here.