China Is Building The World’s Largest Radio Telescope To Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence

According to the official Chinese Xinhua News Agency, China began assembling the world’s largest radio telescope in a remote location in the mountains of the southwestern province of Guizhou Thursday afternoon. The Chinese hope that once the telescope is ready for operation, their astronomers will be able to conduct an independent search for extraterrestrial intelligence beyond the Milky Way Galaxy.

The 500-meter Single-Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (“FAST”) has a dish about the size of 30 football pitches and consists of 4,450 triangular panels. The dish has a perimeter of 1.6 km, which takes about 40 minutes to cover at an average walking speed.

When completed, the telescope will supersede the 305-meter (1,000 feet) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico as the largest radio telescope in the world.

Xinhua reports that China’s National Astronomical Observatories FAST project chief scientist, Nan Rendong, explained that the advantage of having a bigger dish is that it is able to scan deep space and detect weaker and more distant signals better than smaller ones.

“A radio telescope is like a sensitive ear, listening to tell meaningful radio messages from white noise in the universe. It is like identifying the sound of cicadas in a thunderstorm.”

According to engineer Zheng Yuangpeng, the telescope’s sensitivity is enhanced by the ability of the dish to shift to receive radio signals from different parts of the sky.

“Panels can change their positions through connected wires and parallel robots. We can control their position with an accuracy of 1 mm.”

According to Wu Xiangping, director-general of the Chinese Astronomical Society, “Having a more sensitive telescope, we can receive weaker and more distant radio messages. It will help us to search for intelligent life outside of the galaxy and explore the origins of the universe.”

Engineers deliberately chose a site in the mountainous region that consists of three hills about 500 meters apart. The hills form a bowl-shaped valley which, according to the project chief engineer Sun Caihong, creates ideal conditions for supporting operations of the telescope.

“There are three hills about 500 meters away from one another, creating a valley that is perfect to support the telescope.”

Caihong also explained that the region has a Karst topography, consisting of porous rock, underground caves, and crevasses that provide effective drainage needed to protect the reflector.

The entire dish is supported by steel pillars and cables, with maintenance passages running beneath. An observation platform is being constructed on top of a hill to allow visitors to view the dish.

The remoteness of the location also ensures an environment that offers minimum interference and thus ideal conditions for listening to signals from space.

According to Xinhua, there are no large human settlements within a radius of 5 km of the location and only one small community within 25 km.

The latest move is part of Beijing’s overall ambitious efforts to step up the country’s multi-billion dollar space research and development program, which includes plans for a permanent orbiting station by the year 2020 and a manned mission to the Moon.

China takes pride in its national space program, showcasing the country’s emergence as a world power.

The completion of the radio telescope will mark a major milestone in the progress of China’s space program. According to Wu Xiangping, over the years, Chinese scientists have been forced to use “second hand” data in research projects. Thus, Chinese researchers have not been able to set the tone, pace, and direction of their research and achieve significant breakthroughs.

Construction of the radio telescope, which began in March 2011, is scheduled for completion in 2016.

[Image: Wikimedia Commons]