- China’s Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) is the largest and last remaining single-dish telescope since the fall of Arecibo.
- As China’s lunar mission progresses, experts say that through its resolution and sensitivity, the Fast Telescope will help generate serious research in the coming decades.
- Opened in November 2016, Chinese state media reported that fast 2021 could welcome foreign scientists.
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The scientific community mourned the loss of an astronomical landmark after an accident at the Ci Resibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on Wednesday.
There is now only one last remaining giant, single-dish, radio telescope in the world: China’s 500-meter-wide circular radio telescope (FAST).
Completed in 2016 and located in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, the observatory cost 17 1,171 million and took nearly half a decade to build. Its sheer size allows it to detect figurative radio-waves from pulsars and materials in galaxies; 300 of its 500-meter diameters can be used at any time.
Experts say that, over the next decade, it will shine fast in terms of studying the origin of supermassive black holes or identifying faint radio waves to understand the characteristics of planets outside the solar system.
In November, Chinese state media reported that in 2021, the fast facility will be open for use to foreign scientists.
The National Astronomical Observatory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which oversees Fast, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Before and after shots of the Arecibo Telescope.
NAIC Arecibo Observatory / NSF, Ricardo Arduenggo / AFP / Getty Images
There were some functions that the Arecibo telescope could do, however, not fast.
“For observation of the solar system, the Arecibo will be able to transmit signals and receive their reflections from the planets, a task that Fast cannot accomplish on its own. Liu Boyeong, a radio astronomy researcher at the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research at the University of Western Australia, told the South China Morning Post.
China has made significant progress in the space race as the U.S. was shocked, Trade Insider reported earlier this week.
China’s Chang-5 probe landed on the moon this week, collected samples of the moon and the samples will take it back to its orbit, which will begin the process of a week-long journey to Earth to deliver the samples. Today, Chinese state media and NASA have shared images of China planting its flag on the moon.
