China builds world's largest radio telescope

China is in the process of building the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope, located in Huadian City, Jilin Province, northeastern China.

Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope begins trial operations. (Photo: China Media Group).

With a diameter of 120m, the radio telescope will help scientists understand planets and asteroids more accurately. The special feature of this new telescope is its ability to send electromagnetic waves to celestial bodies and receive reflected waves to accurately measure the distance between planets and Earth.

Luo Xuejiu, head of the radio telescope project office, said the site for the telescope was selected in May this year. So far, the pile foundation construction has been completed. The installation, adjustment and testing of the telescope are expected to be completed in 2028.

China has set an ambitious roadmap to become a world leader in space science by 2050. To achieve this, the Asian country has also built the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) - the world's largest and most sensitive single-dish radio telescope - in the southwestern province of Guizhou.

China is also building smaller, fully controllable radio telescopes at other sites across the country that can observe a larger portion of the sky than fixed radio telescopes of the same size.