China launches world’s largest radio telescope, 500m in diameter

The world’s largest radio telescope has begun operating in southwestern China, a project which Beijing says will help humanity search for alien life.

China sees its ambitious military-run, multi-billion-dollar space programme as symbolising the country´s progress.

China just launched its second space station into orbit, the Tiangong-2, and plans to place its own Hubble telescope into orbit as well.

Hundreds of astronomers and science enthusiasts gathered at the launch of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) at noon, according to the country’s official news agency Xinhua.

Mr Wu Xiangping, the director-general of the Chinese Astronomical Society, said the telescope’s high degree of sensitivity “will help us search for intelligent life outside the galaxy”.

The FAST, world’s largest radio telescope, measuring 500 meters in diameter, was completed and put into use on Sunday.

FAST’s concept was initiated in 1994 and the construction took more than five years. Its size surpasses that of the 300-meter Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

The old Soviet RATAN-600 in southern Russian Federation is bigger still, but, unlike China’s new telescope, its 576-meter reflector structure resembles a donut.

The size of about 30 football pitches, the $180m FAST telescope will explore farther and darker regions of space. Not only did China invest $180 million into the construction of the telescope, but it also has controversially relocated between nine and ten thousand residents of the Guizhou province.

Chinese scientists report that the giant dish, which measures 500m (1,640ft) across, is complete and has received its first signals from space.

Yan Jun, head of China’s National Astronomical Observation (NAO), was quoted as saying that the telescope represents a leap forward for China’s astronomical capabilities and will be one of several “world-class” telescope projects launched in the next decade. “We can expect China to become a world leader in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence because of its demonstrated commitment in building FAST”.

“In theory, if there is civilization in outer space, the radio signal it sends will be similar to the signal we can receive when a pulsar (spinning neutron star) is approaching us”, Qian explained.

“As soon as the telescope works normally, a committee will distribute observation time according to the scientific value of the proposals”, Nan Rendong, the project’s chief scientist, told the BBC.