ScienceChinaSpacealiens

The World's Largest Radio Telescope Is Ready To Hunt For Alien Life

E.T., phone China.
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Senior Reporter, HuffPost

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Construction on the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, began in 2011. Workers installed the last of 4,450 panels on Sunday and operations are scheduled to begin in September.
VCG via Getty Images

The Chinese government has finished building the world's largest radio telescope -- a $180 million monster that will be used in the search for extraterrestrial life.

The last of the 4,450 panels that make up the telescope’s reflector, which is some 30 football fields in size, was hoisted into position Sunday morning, according to a press release from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, is located in the country's southwestern province of Guizhou. Its completion comes just months after authorities announced plans to relocate 9,110 people from their homes to make way for the giant.

"As the world's largest single aperture telescope located at an extremely radio-quiet site, its scientific impact on astronomy will be extraordinary, and it will certainly revolutionize other areas of the natural sciences," Nan Rendong, the project's chief scientist, told China’s state-owned Xinhua News Agency.

Unlike optical telescopes, which gather and focus light, radio telescopes detect radio frequencies, including those from pulsars, or rotating neutron stars, and active galaxies. With a diameter of about 1,640 feet, FAST dwarfs Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the previous record holder with a diameter of about 1,000 feet.

Tim O’Brien, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, told New Scientist that the telescope's size is key to its potential impact on scientific exploration.

FAST will allow astronomers to "survey hydrogen in very distant galaxies, detect molecules in space, search for natural radio wave emissions from planets orbiting other stars and help in the search for radio signals" from alien civilizations, O'Brien told the publication.

Construction work on FAST began in 2011, and operations are expected to start in September. 

"FAST's potential to discover an alien civilization will be 5 to 10 times that of current equipment, as it can see farther and darker planets," Peng Bo, of the National Astronomical Observation, told Xinhua.

If E.T. phones home, FAST will be listening.

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Workers lift the last panel to install into the center of a Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) on July 3.
VCG via Getty Images

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Before You Go

Extremely Large Telescopes
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope(01 of04)
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The James Webb Space Telescope is a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror and the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.

It will be launched from French Guiana in October of 2018 and serve as NASA's premier observatory for the next decade. It will study every phase in the history of our universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own solar system. (credit:NASA/Chris Gunn)
Giant Magellan Telescope -- Chile(02 of04)
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The Giant Magellan Telescope is being constructed in the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile and promises to revolutionize our view and understanding of the universe.

The GMT aims to discover Earth-like planets around nearby stars and the tiny distortions that black holes cause in the light from distant stars and galaxies. It will reveal the faintest objects ever seen in space, including distant and ancient galaxies, the light from which has been traveling to Earth since shortly after the Big Bang -- 13.8 billion years ago.

It is expected to begin operations in 2021. (credit:Courtesy of Giant Magellan Telescope Organization)
Thirty Meter Telescope -- Hawaii(03 of04)
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When complete, the Thirty Meter Telescope will become the most advanced and powerful optical telescope on Earth.

It will enable astronomers to study objects in our own solar system and stars throughout our Milky Way, neighboring galaxies and galaxies that formed at the very edge of the observable universe near the beginning of time.

Ongoing protests have stalled construction of the $1.4 billion project for several months, but it is expected to resume this month. (credit:Courtesy TMT International Observatory)
European Extremely Large Telescope -- Chile(04 of04)
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The European Extremely Large Telescope will be the largest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world and will gather 13 times more light than the largest optical telescopes existing today. It will be able to correct for the atmospheric distortions from the start, providing images 16 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope.

The E-ELT has a 39-meter main mirror and is planned to start operations in 2024. (credit:Courtesy of European Southern Observatory)
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