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The iconic Arecibo radio telescope had another cable broken recently, leading to the total collapse and destruction of the telescope. It was the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, but with its demise, China now claims that title. The Chinese Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) is now the largest and largest single dish radio telescope in the world.
The Chinese telescope has an aperture of 500 meters and was completed in 2016. It is located in Guizhou providence, in southwestern China, and cost 171 million dollars to build. The construction lasted about five years. Its size allows it to detect faint radio waves from pulsars and material in galaxies at great distances.
Interestingly, only 300 of its 500 meters in diameter can be used at a time. The huge radio telescope will be used for major missions for the next ten years. Experts say the telescope will be an important part of studying the origins of supermassive black holes and identifying weak radio waves to understand the characteristics of planets outside our solar system.
FAST will not be able to replace the Arecibo Observatory in all aspects of functionality. Arecibo stood out for being able to transmit signals and receive the reflections of the planets. FAST cannot perform this function on its own. That ability allowed Arecibo to monitor near-Earth asteroids. Monitoring for near-Earth asteroids is essential because some could represent potential damage to Earth.
China has also announced that the FAST facility will be open to use by foreign scientists starting next year. It remains to be seen whether the international scientific community accepts the offer to use FAST. There are concerns about Chinese espionage by many governments around the world.
