China’s FAST telescope opened up to scientists from 14 countries last year
- The Chinese Academy of Sciences says the world’s largest radio telescope granted 10 per cent of its observation time to international astronomers in 2021
- The ‘sky eye’ can detect radio signals that no other telescope can pick up – and may help in the search for extraterrestrial life
The country’s top scientific institute also said that it was considering setting aside 1 per cent of the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST)’s observation time for Chinese schoolchildren.
The academy’s vice-president Zhou Qi said on Wednesday that observations for foreign scientists began in August, adding: “The academy has set up committees to handle time allocation and users, plan the direction of research, select major projects and set up data-sharing policies.
“The efforts have been made to maximise the capacity of the ‘sky eye’ and support major scientific achievements.”
As its name implies, the FAST dish, located in the karst mountains of the southwestern province of Guizhou, is 500 metres (1,600 feet) in diameter, covering the same area as around 30 football pitches.
Its size that allows it to intercept signals that other radio telescopes will miss – possibly including radio waves from extraterrestrials.
