China begins testing the world’s largest radio telescope as construction of the £124 MILLION project enters the final stage of completion, measuring 500 meters in diameter, being put through its paces with a dry run. The project name is called ‘FAST’ which stands for “Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope” the device is being constructed in Guizhou Province, southwest China.
The project has taken more than five years to build the world’s biggest single-aperture radio telescope which covers above the size of 30 football pitches and is presently running on schedule. Scientists carried out the last stages with hopes of a September 2016 completion.
Moreover, Chinese authorities and engineers tested important components inside the gigantic telescope before it goes live indefinitely. Thus, a mechanism that weighs more than 30,000 kilograms and is suspended 160 meters above the reflector dish, which is still unfinished, and the reflector dish will collect signals from the whole universe.
The project was first proposed in 2003, as the body of a telescope measuring 500 meters across. Therefore, the huge dish is made up of more than 4,500 mostly triangular panels and its side panels measure 11 meters long, the motion of these panels alters the collective shape of the antenna. The new antenna is adept at reflecting radio signals from the universe to a focal point, where the receiver dome sits.
The design of the telescope is not too difficult to understand, it is very similar to a TV antenna: “FAST” is similar to any television antenna on a roof, but it is so much larger. Some astronomers predict it will not be long before new discoveries are found because of the advanced technology of FAST and also expect it to find unidentified stars in the Milky Way and other more distant thousands of galaxies in different environments in the local universe.
After the completion of its detection, FAST is expected to maintain world-class status for the next 20-30 years. Moreover, the massive radio telescope will cost about 1.2 billion Yuan (£124 million), making it the biggest astronomy project China has ever had. The remoteness of the location also protects the surrounding landscape from any damage. Source: Dailymail
It has taken more than five years to build the world’s biggest single-aperture radio telescope. It’s on schedule for completion in 2016It will take a very long time to walk around the telescope which measures more than 500 metres in diameter and spans 30 football pitches
Made up of over 4,500 mostly triangular panels and its side panels measure 11 meters long, altering the collective shape of the antennaMeasuring 500 metres in diameter, the huge radio telescope is being built in Guizhou Province, southwest ChinaScientists spent the weekend testing the largest telescope in the world which goes by the name of FAST, situated in southeast China
Some astronomers have said it will not be long before new discoveries are found because of the advanced technology and size of FASTThe gigantic telescope will cost approximately 1.2 billion Yuan (£124 million), making it the biggest astronomy project China has ever hadThe world’s largest radio telescope is in the final stages of completion and is being put through its paces with a dry run in China
China is building the world’s biggest radio telescope that’s the equivalent of 30 football pitches so it can ‘listen to the universe from the earth’
