Another great success is due to be unveiled in China later this year as they begin observation from what will be the largest single-aperture telescope in the world. Measuring in at a whopping 500 meters, it will smash the current 53-year record held by Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory which has a diameter of 300 meters and will have ten times its sensitivity. Having installed the telescope’s last panel on the 3 July 2016, FAST is now ready to go.
FAST stands for Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope and has been in construction since 2011. Although the telescope is sure to turn some heads in the world, it is not without its cost implications. To date, FAST has cost over $105 million to build, and the bills do not stop there. Because of its location in a rural area of Guizhou province, 9000 people needed to be relocated from their homes to avoid any unnecessary magnetic disruptions. Those that did lose their homes were relocated to a neighboring county and were each given $10000 Yuan ($1500) in compensation for the inconvenience.
Because of FAST’s unique structure, it is capable of forming a parabolic mirror that can be pointed anywhere and will be able to detect radio signals from thousands of light years away. This is a step up from that of the Arecibo Observatory, which is both smaller and less powerful than FAST. With its main focuses being on searching for alien life, detecting pulsars and gravitational waves and surveying neutral hydrogen in a milky way, the telescope certainly has some work to do, but with all the time and money that has been devoted to this project it is certain to be a success and may even bring us secrets from far away.
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