Construction began at world’s largest Radio Telescope

The world’s largest radio telescope which will be 500 meters in diameter, has just began construction, in China.

The FAST single-aperture spherical telescope, world’s largest radio telescope, with a dish the size of 30 football grounds, will be made up of 4,450 panels, located in the mountains of Guizhou Province, in southwest China.

The telescope’s reflector, will exceede the 300 meters in diameter at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory.

Nan Rendong, chief scientist of the FAST project with the National Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China.org:

“A radio telescope is like a sensitive ear, listening to tell meaningful radio messages from white noise in the universe. It is like identifying the sound of cicadas in a thunderstorm.

There are three hills about 500 meters away from one another, creating a valley that is perfect to support the telescope.”

via io9