World's largest telescope installed in China!
posted on Jul 4, 2016 @ 6:13PM
China has successfully finished the installation of the world's largest radio telescope as the last of 4,450 panels was fitted into the centre of the big dish.Telescope in mountainous Guizhou Province has a diameter of 1,640 feet and is roughly the size of 30 football fields. Once fully working, the Five Hundred Metre Aperture Spherical Telescope, also known as FAST, aims to search for signals to understand the origin of the universe and also boost the global hunt for extra-terrestrial life.
It is also due to be used to study the Milky Way in more detail and look for the first shining stars. The 'Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope' cost a whopping 1.2 billion yuan (£135 million) to build. In the first two or three years after its completion, the telescope will undergo further adjustment, and during that period Chinese scientists will use it for early-stage research and after that, it will be open to scientists worldwide.