World's largest radio telescope

Context

• The world’s largest radio telescope, the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope or FAST has been installed in Pingtang in China's Guizhou province.

What is the FAST Telescope?

• Work on FAST began in 2011 and it started full operations in January 2020.
• It is about to open its doors for foreign astronomers.
• It cost 1.1 billion yuan to build.
• FAST boasts of a 500-metre giant satellite dish, the size of which can cover the area of 30 football pitches.
• This is also the world's largest.
• FAST is surrounded by a five-kilometre “radio silence” zone where mobile phones and computers are not allowed.
• FAST mainly captures radio signals emitted by celestial bodies. In particular, pulsars which are rapidly rotating dead stars.
• It has a novel design, using an active surface made of metal panels that can be automatically tilted to help change the focus to different areas of the sky.

Significance

• The data collected should help understand of the origins of the universe.
• It could also aid in the search for alien life.