Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is nestled within a natural basin in China's remote and mountainous southwestern Guizhou province. Nicknamed Tianyan, or the Eye of Heaven, the new radio telescope is seen in this photograph taken near the start of its testing phase of operations on September 25.
Designed with an active surface for pointing and focusing, its enormous dish antenna is constructed with 4,450 individual triangular-shaped panels. The 500 meter physical diameter of the dish makes FAST the largest filled, single dish radio telescope on planet Earth. FAST will explore the Universe at radio frequencies, detecting emission from hydrogen gas in the Milky Way and distant galaxies, finding faint galactic and extragalactic pulsars, and searching for potential radio signals from extraterrestrials.
Image & info via APOD
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Jeff Dai (TWAN)
#space #nasa #science #FAST
I think this is a great achievement, even if it is Made in China. I hope the rulers understand that the science and curiosity should know no borders. Don't panic, it is not spherical, still parabolic (or the paraboloid is the Chinese sphere? :)). Ingenious technology behind the scenes.
ReplyDeleteI hope no skateboarders can find it! 😃
ReplyDelete