China Just Built World’s Largest Telescope to Track Aliens
China officially confirmed that it finished building World’s largest radio telescope in Pingtang County, located in the southwest area of China’s Guizhou Province. The telescope is known as Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), which is has been cut out of a mountain in Guizhou. The size of the gigantic reflector used in FAST is equivalent to 30 football fields put together.
World’s Biggest Radio Telescope: Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China
The development of Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, started five years back and the expenditure incurred to complete the project was $180m. However, the initial developments and investigations began way back in 1994. The project was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of China (NDRC) in July 2007.
What makes world’s largest ever radio telescope FAST in SW #China‘s Guizhou so extraordinary? #XinhuaTVhttps://t.co/fLK9CrBlZC
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) 2 July 2016
Deputy Head of National Astronomical Observation (body which built FAST Telescope) Mr. Zheng Xiaonian informed that the telescope shall be put to trial use by the scientist initially and the process of debugging and adjustments shall begin.
World’s Biggest Radio Telescope: Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China
“The project has the potential to search for more strange objects to better understand the origin of the universe and boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life,”
— Zheng said, according to the Xinhua news agency.
The telescope shall begin its operations from September 2016. FAST is capable of detecting pulsars, gravitational waves and eventually amino acids, which shall confirm life on other planets
— Xinhua News
The chief scientist of the project is Nan Rendong a researcher with the Chinese National Astronomical Observatory, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) shall be replacing Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 meters in diameter, which was considered as the world’s largest telescope till now.
President Xi Jinping has aways asked for prioritization of China’s space program. China aims to set feet on Moon by 2036 and establishing a space station there.
China has always confirmed that its space program is for peaceful purposes but the US defense department has mentioned that China is pursuing activities aimed to prevent adversaries from using space-based assets in a crisis.
Picture Credits: Shutterstock.Co
