The world's largest radio telescope was finished on Sept. 25, 2017 in China.
FAST is a five-hundred-meter telescope. It is also calledTian-yan("The Eye of Heaven"), with a dish the sire of 30 football grounds, deep in the mountains of southwest China's Guizhou Province. The giant dish is built on a howl-like valley.
The surrounding area has "radio silence" as there are no towns and cities within a 5-kilometer radius (半径范围) and only one county center within 25 kilometers.
FAST is made up of 4, 450 panels (面板). The second largest radio telescope is in Russia. The bigger dish will be able to pick up weaker signals (信号).
The radio telescope is like an ear, listening to tell meaningful radio messages from white noise in the universe. With the help of the telescope, we can receive weaker and more radio messages far away in space. It will help us to search for intelligent life outside of the Galaxy (银河系) and explore the origins (起源) of the universe. "Any of its discoveries will lead to a Nobel Prize," said Joseph Taylor, a Noble Prize winner.
The FAST project began in 2011. And the telescope is expected to remain the global leader for the next 10 to 20 years.
