China officially introduced its five hundred meter spherical opening radio telescope (FAST) this weekend and although it’s construction began in 2011 and was not completed until 2016, it has already made incredible discoveries. So far it is functioning without any drawbacks.
This astronomical device is located in Pingtang in Guizhou, China, and is now operating at 100% capacity, setting a new record as the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope. The diameter of the FAST plate measures almost half a kilometer and is composed of more than 4.00 aluminum panels inclined and rotated by about 2,000 mechanical lathes.
FAST is also the most sensitive radio telescope in the world: 2.5 times more sensitive than any radio telescope that is currently operating. This means that you can explore the deepest and darkest corners of the known universe.
FAST, the world's most sensitive telescope, is part of a wider effort to get Chinese scientists to come home https://t.co/2QUdLv5CUi
— Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) January 20, 2020
The radio telescope is part of the Breakthrough Initiatives program, an international group of cooperating telescopes in the United States, Australia, and China, whose goal is to look for signs of extraterrestrial civilizations in the universe.
FAST has undergone final tests for the past three years, and has already detected 102 new pulsars, a type of rotating neutron star that emits a flash of electromagnetic radiation at regular intervals; it has also recorded a series of rapid radio bursts, fleeting pulses of radiation emitted from distant corners of the universe.
The telescope will have the task of tracking gravitational waves that move towards the Earth, exploring the atmospheres of distant exoplanets and further measuring these mysterious rapid radio bursts. In particular, researchers expect the telescope to finally identify signs of life in other parts of the universe.
#China put world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope FAST into formal operation on Saturday. The telescope will provide astronomers around the globe with a powerful tool to uncover the mysteries surrounding the genesis and evolutions of the universe. #space pic.twitter.com/9U15MKVoos
— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) January 12, 2020
