China builds largest-ever radio telescope
JUL 05, 2016
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029941
New Scientist : This week China completed construction of the largest radio telescope in the world, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST). Situated in a crater-like depression in China’s southwestern province of Guizhou, FAST comprises 4450 triangular panels that can be rearranged to track radio waves from specific objects, giving the telescope far greater range and sensitivity than other radio dishes. Once it is up and running, FAST will be used to look for pulsars and exoplanets, to detect molecules such as hydrogen in space, and to search for potential electromagnetic signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.
© 2016 American Institute of Physics
