# China is building the world's biggest radio telescope



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 29, 2015)

China is building the world’s largest radio telescope in Guizhou province, south west China.

Construction for the Five hundred metre Aperture Spherical Telescope, shortened to FAST, started in March 2011. The project is now expect to be completed by September 2016.
The gigantic radio telescope will cost approximately 1.2 billion Yuan (£120 million), making it the biggest astronomy project China has ever had. 
It will allow scientists to get weaker radio signals from outer space, even further than our solar system, reported People's Daily Online.








Li Di, the chief scientist of the National Astronomical Observatories Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: ‘FAST will remain the best in the world in the next twenty to thirty years after it is completed.’
The idea of building this radio telescope was first proposed in 1993. 
But it was only approved in 2006 after an international review and advisory conference on the science and technology of FAST.

It has been described as 'ears' and will help scientists listen to the universe.






Scientists from different fields, including physicists, geologists and astronomers, welcomed the construction of the new telescope as it will boost the human capacity to observe outer space.
Chen Xuelei, a physicists said that the data can help prove Einstein’s relativity theory once more data of gravitational waves can be retrieved from the telescope.
Li Di added: 'FAST can answer questions not only limited to astronomy but questions about humanity and nature. The scientific potential of this telescope is hard to predict.’






The telescope is made up of 4,450 reflective panels. The size of the dish will be about thirty football pitches.
Cables are attached to every reflective panels to control its coordinates. The intricate design allows scientists to shift the dish to receive radio signals from different angles.

Li Di said : ‘The biggest challenge of this project is to calculate quickly and attached these data to thousands of computers to change the direction of such a gigantic telescope. 

'We will be using lasers to pinpoint the exact coordinates, accurate to millimetres.’

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico will lose its title as the largest single aperture radio telescope ever constructed.

FAST is built in the Dawodang depression in Guizhou Province.
The natural landscape provides the perfect size and shape for the construction of the telescope. The ground also provides enough support for the gigantic telescope. 
The porous soil forms an underground drainage system that protects the telescope.
With only one town in the 12 miles radius, the Dawodang depression is extremely isolated from magnetic disruptions.
The remoteness of the location also protects the surrounding landscape from any damage.


The Chinese FAST will be able to survey the outer space ten times better than Arecibo.

‘We are aiming to discovering something that is worthy of a Nobel Prize. Although we built the telescope, we welcome scientists from all around the world to use it,’ Li Di added.


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## Nosada (Jul 29, 2015)

I was under the impression single-dish offered no advantages over arrays like the VLA. Anyone have enough knowledge about this to shed any light on it?

EDIT: Apparently the difference lies not in resolution, which arrays are far superior in as they can be built over great distances, but sensitivity. The VLA for example, has a resolution of 36km, but only a sensitivity comparable to a 130m dish.


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## NormanStokes (Jul 31, 2015)

The largest and most famous radio telescope in the world--the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico--is about to be upstaged. In a remote part of Guizhou province in southern China, construction has begun on a true behemoth of engineering, the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), an instrument that promises to transform radio astronomy.


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## Caring1 (Jul 31, 2015)

NormanStokes said:


> The largest and most famous radio telescope in the world--the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico--is about to be upstaged. In a remote part of Guizhou province in southern China, construction has begun on a true behemoth of engineering, the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), an instrument that promises to transform radio astronomy.


Now where have I read that before!


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 17, 2016)

Around 9,110 people from the Pingtang County, Guizhou Province, have been asked to relocate by the authorities in order to provide a better environment for the radio waves, the *People's Daily Online* reports.  
The 'Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope' or 'FAST', which cost £124 million to build, is due to start operation this year after a five-year construction process.


















The telescope is situated in a huge karst valley in Pingtang County, a rural area of Guizhou province, where a lot of residents are poor. 
Residents within three miles of the site will be reportedly given a 12,000 Yuan (£1,288) subsidy to relocate, with some getting extra financial support for housing.
The new telescope will overtake the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to become the world's largest radio telescope. It has a diameter of 1,640 feet and occupies an area as large as 30 football pitches.
It took the Chinese scientists as long as 17 years to find a hollow in the country large enough to accommodate the dish.
Li Di, a chief scientist from the National Astronomical Observatories affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences told *China Daily*: 'FAST is so large that if you fill it with wine, every one of the world's seven billion people could get a share of about five bottles'.
Li Yuecheng, secretary-general of the CPPCC Guizhou Provincial Committee says that the relocations will 'create a sound electromagnetic wave environment'. 
The new telescope is set to be involved in the search for extra terrestrial life. With its sensitive telescope, it can detect weaker radio signals.
It is also due to be used to study the Milky Way in more detail and look for the first shining stars.


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## Beertintedgoggles (Feb 17, 2016)

Will there be another James Bond sequel to go along with it?


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 4, 2016)

China has just put the final piece into place to complete what will be the biggest radio telescope in the world.

The telescope will be used to explore space and help in the hunt for extraterrestrial life.








Scientists will now start debugging and performing trials on the telescope, Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astronomical Observation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which built the telescope, told the official
Xinhua News Agency.

Radio telescopes collect radio waves from space. The giant dish reflects the waves and focusses them onto antennae.

Because it is so large it will be used to detect the weakest signals. The wider the telescope, the more radio waves it will collect.

FAST is built in the Dawodang depression in Guizhou Province.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_hundred_meter_Aperture_Spherical_Telescope

The natural landscape provides the perfect size and shape for the construction of the telescope. The ground also provides enough support for the gigantic telescope.

The porous soil forms an underground drainage system that protects the telescope.

With only one town in the 12 miles (19km) radius, the Dawodang depression is extremely isolated from magnetic disruptions.


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## Drone (Jul 4, 2016)




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## peche (Jul 4, 2016)

if you know what i mean....


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## Drone (Jul 8, 2016)

Latest news:


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## Drone (Sep 22, 2016)

Almost there! Just a couple of days!

breathtaking video: (feed cabin installation)










Latest news










oops / deleted wrong video


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## FreedomEclipse (Sep 22, 2016)

Goldeneye.  Better send James bond over to fight the chinese


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## Drone (Sep 27, 2016)

Lol each video has some bits of information and footage that others don't


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## Drone (Oct 7, 2016)

Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), is Arecibo on steroids.  The latter has a dish diameter of 300 meters, so FAST is, in principle, almost three times more sensitive.  Put another way, it can reach 70% farther into space with the same sensitivity, which could increase the number of “targets” within its purview by roughly 4.6 times.

These are merely brute-force consequences of FAST's size, however.  This new telescope, which is younger than its Puerto Rican cousin by more than a half-century, is also able to see more of the sky – up to 40 degrees from its “straight overhead”, or zenith, pointing.  While Arecibo can track objects for as much as 40 minutes, FAST can do this for as long as 6 hours.  That would gain it another factor of three advantage in sensitivity.

For the first several years, FAST will be in shakedown mode.  After that, research on galaxies, pulsars, and other astronomical objects will begin, and foreign researchers will also have access.

Source: SETI


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## Recon-UK (Oct 7, 2016)

Radio? PFFFFFFFT Bluetooth


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## Steevo (Oct 7, 2016)

Recon-UK said:


> Radio? PFFFFFFFT Bluetooth


Bluetooth range has been increased to 50 feet with this new small antenna made in China, it easily fits in your.... um...... how about that distance increase!!!


4.4 roughly light years to Alpha Centauri with a possible habitable planet, I wonder if we were to start listening if we would be able to pickup anything terrestrial based from it, even lightning or aurora borealis to confirm an atmosphere and or liquid metallic core?


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