BEIJING: China’s new radio telescope, stated as the world’s largest could become Earth’s “big sensitive ear” to listen to subtle sounds from the distant universe, decoding cosmic messages.
The USD 196 million telescope, with a dish area as large as 30 football fields and expected to be ready by next year, is being built in a hollow formed in the mountainous Guizhou Province due to collapse of a karst cave 45 million years ago.
Technicians are assembling the telescope’s reflector, which is 500 metres in diameter and made up of 4,450 panels. Each panel is an equilateral triangle with a side length of 11 metres, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The telescope is to be connected to China’s super computer. Once completed, the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical radio Telescope or “FAST” will overtake Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory, which is 305 metres in diameter.
It will be 10 times more sensitive than the steerable 100-metre telescope near Bonn, Germany, said Zhang Haiyan, deputy director of the general office of the FAST Project.
Engineer Zhu Boqin, who worked on the site selection more than 20 years ago, said the surrounding area has “radio silence” as there are no towns and cities within a radius of 5 km and only one county centre within 25 km.
FAST will enable astronomers to jumpstart many science goals, said Nan Rendong, chief scientist of the FAST Project, and a researcher with the Chinese National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
