Astronomers launched a telescope yesterday to search for the origins of the universe and even to find intelligent alien lifeforms - all by listening to the skies using a massive FM radio receiver.

The universities of Portsmouth, Oxford and Southampton joined forces with experts from around the country to construct the first major radio telescope to be built in the UK for decades.

The first stage of the European Low Frequency Array (Lofar) telescope involves 96 radio antennae being erected this week in a field at the Chilbolton Observatory near Andover, Hampshire.

This will be followed with 5,000 separate antennae being stationed all over Europe with some already in place in The Netherlands, Germany with others planned in France, Sweden and Poland.

Bob Nichol, of the University of Portsmouth's Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, said: "The Lofar telescope will produce an enormous volume of data which will enable a significant amount of science, from monitoring the sun's activity or 'space weather' to potentially searching for alien intelligence.

"Maybe we can answer the age-old question 'Are we alone?'."

The Lofar will collect data which the scientists hope will enable them to detect when the first stars in the universe were formed as well as observe some of the most distant galaxies.

This could help them to reveal how the universe evolved.

The antennae installed across Europe will work at the lowest FM frequencies accessible from Earth and will be connected using sophisticated computing and high-speed internet.

A super-computer based in the Netherlands will use digital electronics to combine the signals from the antennae to make images of the entire radio sky.

Rob Fender, of the University of Southampton and principal investigator of the Lofar-UK project, said: "Lofar is an amazingly simple concept because the antennae are made from everyday components."