China builds world’s most powerful radio telescope with 4,450 triangular aluminium panels

China has built the world’s most powerful and the largest single aperture radio telescope in the southwestern province of Guizhou in expectation of an “extraordinary impact” on astronomy. Made up of 4,450 triangular aluminium panels, the $180m telescope’s dish is half a kilometre in diameter, with a total area equivalent in size to 30 football pitches.

It is located in a remote limestone valley in Pingtang County to minimise electromagnetic “noise” from human activity – an important factor in the sensitivity of the instrument, which is known as FAST (an acronym for “Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical radio Telescope”).

The aluminium panels of the radio telescope are capable of being adjusted to create a 300m sub-dish that can be focused on particular bits of the universe with 10 times the sensitivity of Arecibo. The panels are moved by means of 2,300 steel wires that are connected to electrical motors. They can be adjusted to plus or minus 5mm.

Officially completed on Sunday, 3 July, the gargantuan device has taken the title of world’s largest single aperture telescope from Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory.

FAST will collect radio waves of between 10 and 4,300cm to “listen in” on a wide range of astronomical events, from galaxy formation to stellar collapse. It will also be used to survey “neutral” hydrogen, an important factor in understanding the dynamics of galaxies.