FAST: The World's Biggest Radio Telescope ~ MachinaSphere.com

China’s largest radio telescope, known as the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is situated in a vast, secluded natural basin in Pingtang County, Guizhou Province, in the southwestern part of China. Locals affectionately refer to it as “Tianyan,” which translates to “the eye of heaven“.

China’s endeavor to construct its own radio telescope received approval from the China National Development and Reform Commission in 2007. Following 12 years of geological surveys and careful selection from over 1000 potential sites, the technology team settled on the Dawadang depression in Guizhou. Groundbreaking occurred on March 5, 2011, and the entire project, costing approximately 667 million CNY, was completed in five and a half years.

N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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What makes this telescope remarkable is not only its ability to overcome numerous construction challenges but also its precision in detecting the faintest waves from thousands of light-years away in the known universe. Operational since 2016, the telescope has already discovered 24 pulsars, 14 of which have been confirmed by either Effelsberg or Parkes.

FAST is constructed similarly to the Arecibo Telescope, featuring a 500-meter aperture spherical dish for signal reception. This dish comprises approximately 4500 triangular aluminum panels, each supported by cables beneath them. These cables are intricately controlled by computers to adjust the panels into optimal angles for receiving signals from various directions. The cable network is highly complex, consisting of 10,000 cables that form a sophisticated cushioning net for the dish, along with 2250 articulated joints that help manipulate its shape.

The installation of the cables for this net is both challenging and hazardous. Additionally, the focus cabin, weighing up to 30 tonnes, is suspended above the dish at a height of 140 meters by just six cables. This cabin, a crucial component of the telescope, houses the feed that captures radio signals reflected off the dish. It works in tandem with the active surface, adjusting its position to track the movement of radio sources with precision.

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The primary objective of FAST is to investigate pulsars, which are rotating neutron stars. Pulsars are among the densest celestial bodies, formed from the gravitational collapse of massive stars and squeezing about 1.4 times the mass of the Sun into a sphere only 12 miles wide. On Earth, a teaspoon of material from a neutron star would weigh over 1 billion tons. Additionally, like many astronomical projects created by humans, FAST aims to detect signals of interstellar communication from intelligent beings, essentially searching for alien signals within the universe. Another key aim of FAST is to detect gravitational waves.

Pierre Markuse from Hamm, Germany, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Here are 6 fascinating facts about the FAST that you should know:

FAST is designed solely for receiving signals from the universe and does not transmit any signals.
The massive 500-meter dish of FAST is constructed using 4,500 triangular aluminum panels.
The combined area of all the dish panels of FAST is equivalent to 30 football fields.
During observations, the telescope’s dish can be precisely tilted to receive signals from various directions in the universe.
When tilted, the effective area of the dish that can receive signals is approximately 300 meters wide, indicating that not the entire dish area is utilized continuously during operations.
The entire FAST project covers an area of 300 hectares.

Furthermore, FAST holds the distinction of being the world’s largest and most powerful single-antenna radio telescope to date. In terms of sensitivity, it surpasses the German Bonn telescope by tenfold. Additionally, when compared to the Arecibo telescope in the United States, FAST boasts a comprehensive performance that is roughly ten times superior.