FAST - Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope logo.
September 25, 2016
Image above: The installation of the world's largest radio telescope, Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), is completed in Guizhou, China, on July 3, 2016. Image Credit: Xinhua.
The largest radio telescope in the world became operational Sunday (Today) in the southwest of China. The enormous tool is part of a huge project which aims according to Beijing detect extraterrestrial intelligent life.
Building the world's largest radio telescope - BBC News
Called by scientists "Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST)", the telescope began operating around midday, said Xinhua news agency. FAST, which has a spherical aperture with a diameter of 500 meters, covering an area equivalent to 30 football fields, is located in a rural area of Guizhou province (southwest), three karst hills.
Finding intelligent life
The plant, whose construction began in March 2011, has cost 1.2 billion yuan (180 million francs) and significantly exceeds in size the Arecibo radio telescope, located in the island of Puerto Rico, which has a diameter 305 meters.
Image above: Largest ever in the world, the Chinese five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is about to complete, now we can wait for the aliens. Image Credit: Xinhua.
The Director General of the Chinese Astronomical Society, Wu Xiangping, said last year in New China that the high degree of sensitivity FAST would "help search of intelligent life outside our galaxy."
Related article:
China FAST hunt for alien life with giant telescope
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2016/07/china-fast-hunt-for-alien-life-with.html
For more information about Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), visit: http://fast.bao.ac.cn/en/
Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: CDN/Xinhua/WikiMedia Commons/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
Greetings, Orbiter.ch
