China hunts aliens with giant telescopes

The building, which is as big as 30 football fields, will allow scientists to collect signals tens of billions of light years from Earth when inaugurated in 2016.

China built telescopes to search for aliens

The Telegraph on November 27 reported that the world's largest radio telescope in the southeastern Binhping Basin in Guizhou Province, is entering the final construction phase. Called FAST , the glasses will provide a leading position in space research and life search beyond Earth after completion.

A normal person will take about 40 minutes to walk around the glasses. FAST's giant disk is made up of more than 4,500 triangular glass panels.

With a disc-shaped design that is as big as 30 football fields, the glass will scan the signal of life away from tens of billions of years of light, collecting radio signals from distant galaxies and solar systems, and looking for Future energy sources like natural hydrogen.

FAST radio telescope after installing triangular plates in the receiving area.(Photo: Rediff).

"The radio telescope is like a sensitive ear that listens to meaningful radio messages from white sound in the universe. This is similar to recognizing the cicada's cry during a thunderstorm , " Nan Rendong, key project scientist of the 500m spherical spherical telescope , said.

The construction of the telescope began in 2011 and will be completed in September 2016. It is much bigger than the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, considered the largest in the world today. The construction site is carefully selected to protect the glass in advance. The beehive rock in the basin makes rainwater escape quickly, while the distance from the nearest town ensures a quiet space for the glass.

Recently, scientists in charge of the project are installing giant triangular glass panels with 10m long sides, acting as the retina of FAST. Special cables fixed to each glass plate allow them to be adjusted precisely when the telescope operates.

"The glass will help us find intelligent life out of the galaxy and explore the origin of the universe," said Wu Xiangping, director of the Chinese Astronomical Society.

"We have completed one of the last important steps. FAST is similar to a TV antenna but much larger. With a larger and more flexible receiving area, FAST can scan the sky area greater than two. times compared to Arecibo and has a sensitivity 3-5 times, " China Daily quoted Li Di, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.