CHINA BUILDS WORLD LARGEST SINGLE-APERTURE TELESCOPE CALLED FAST
12/13/2016 12:44:00 pm / Omaiye Benjamin Ohepo / No comments
As we all know, for the past fifty-three (53 yrs) years now, the Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory has ever been the king of radio telescopes as the case may be. Well as it may be it is no more again, sorry to say. Recently, China has just finished the construction of its Five hundred (500M) meter Aperture Spherical Telescope in acronym also known as (FAST), which is roughly sixty-four (64%) percent larger than the Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, thus making it the worlds largest single-aperture telescope ever built, However, the world's largest radio telescope is situated in Russia, which is known as the Russia's RATAN-600.
The Chinese Aperture Spherical Telescope in acronym also known as FAST was built in in a rural area of Guizhou province right in an isolated valley, which is obviously the best for radio telescopes. In order to ensure that there is no magnetic disruptions, roughly Nine thousand (9,000) people around rural province area of Guizhou have being removed from their homes and rehoused in a new neighboring side of the country.
Unlike the Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which posses a fixed spherical curvature, The Chinese Aperture Spherical Telescope FAST is capable of forming a parabolic mirror. That will in turn allow researchers to gain a greater degree of flexibility as they work. Although The Chinese Aperture Spherical Telescope FAST is 500 meters wide, The Chinese Aperture Spherical Telescope FAST effectively offers a three hundred (300M) meter dish that can be pointed anywhere ±40° from the zenith, with 10 times the sensitivity of the Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory.
The Chinese Aperture Spherical Telescope FAST will soon begin listening to the universe later this year (2016). The Chinese Aperture Spherical Telescope FAST will be tasked with surveying neutral hydrogen in the milky way and other galaxies as the case may be, and also detecting pulsars and gravitational waves and looking for signs of extra-terrestrial life in the universe.