China has to relocate almost 10,000 people from the vicinity of the world’s largest radio telescope that is building, to guarantee its effectiveness.
The 500 meters in diameter Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), will be completed in September, surpassing the Arecibo radio observatory in Puerto Rico, which is 305 meters in diameter.
Its 460,000 reflective mirrors will reflect radio signals in a 30-ton antenna.
The Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is a radio telescope under construction located in a natural basin, in Pingtang County, Guizhou Province, southwest China.
Construction on the FAST project began in 2011 and is scheduled for completion by September 2016. It will be the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope and three times more sensitive than the Arecibo Observatory. It will have a cost of around 110 million US dollars at the time. FAST will have an effective dish size of 300 m (compared to Arecibo’s effective diameter of 200 m). It will be capable of covering the sky within 40° from the zenith (compared to Arecibo’s 20° range).
via The Guardian
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