FAST, the world's largest telescope, begins to look for life in the universe

On January 11, China officially launched the world's largest telescope, called FAST, located on a mountain in Guizhou province, southwestern China to study the universe and search. extraterrestrial life.

FAST is a spherical telescope, with a aperture of 500 meters, the size equivalent to 30 football fields, with a construction cost of nearly 1.2 billion yuan (US $ 170 million). FAST from 9-2016 and conducted testing during the past 3 years.

Test results show that FAST telescopes are very stable and reliable. In particular, FAST has a sensitivity 2.5 times better than the second largest telescope in the world today. The ability to receive information of FAST up to 38gigabytes / second.

During the experiment, FAST discovered 102 new moons, collecting some valuable scientific data. The scientists believe that in the next 3-5 years FAST will help achieve new achievements in areas such as the detection of low frequency gravity waves.

Previously, China had to relocate around 7,000 residents living in the vicinity to a town 10km from FAST to ensure the telescope worked. Around FAST, China has set up a park with an astronomical theme, attracting a large number of visitors.

Currently, China is also planning to build its own space station by 2021.

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