AsianScientist (Jul. 13, 2016) – After more than five years of construction, the world’s largest single-aperture radio telescope is finally getting ready to open its eye.
On July 3, 2016, with the installation of the last of its 4,450 reflecting panels—equivalent to the size of 30 soccer fields, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China is counting down to seeing its first light in two to three months’ time.
Compared with the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, the previous record holder with a diameter of 300 meters, FAST is not only much bigger and more sensitive, but also innovative in several ways. It has greater sky coverage thanks to its active main reflector, and moves with greater precision due to its light-weight, adjustable feed cabin.
“Once completed, it will lead the world for at least 10 to 20 years,” said Mr. Yan Jun, director-general of the National Astronomical Observatories (NAO) of China under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Designed, built and owned by NAO, the telescope was first mooted in 1994 and preceded a decade of searching for a suitable spot to build the telescope. NAO scientists eventually found a nearly perfect location for FAST in Dawodang, Kedu Town, based in southeastern China’s Guizhou Province, where the land forms and mountains are naturally shielded against radio frequency interference.
The project was approved by the Chinese government in 2007 and, in line with projections, will be completed 5.5 years after the project’s formal start date at a total cost of 1.15 billion yuan (~US$180 million).
“FAST will enable Chinese astronomers to jump-start many scientific goals, such as surveying the neutral hydrogen in the Milky Way, detecting faint pulsars, and listening to possible signals from other civilizations,” said Professor Nan Rendong, the general engineer and chief scientist of FAST. “It’s time for China to have its own big telescope.”
In the next couple of months, the FAST team will be testing and debugging the telescope, said Mr. Wang Qiming, head of the reflector system and general technologist for the project. The project’s official completion date is set for late September, and the telescope’s first data are expected around the same time.
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Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences; Photo: National Astronomical Observatories of China.
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