FAST, the world's largest 500 meter radio telescope accelerating the search for aliens, began operation in China

Located in the southwestern part of ChinaGuizhou(Guizhou) on September 25, 2016, the world's largest radio telescope "FAST(Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope: 500 meter opening spherical radio telescope) "has entered the operation state. As the world's most powerful electronic telescope, it is expected to be useful for exploring intellectual living bodies outside the earth.

China Flips "ON" Search for Alien Life With Earth's Most Powerful Radio Telescope this Week - The Daily Galaxy - Great Discoveries Channel
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2016/09/china-flips-on-search-for-alien-life-with-earths-most-powerful-radio-telescope-this-week.html

As its name suggests, FAST with a specular diameter of up to 500 meters is said to have 10 times more exploration capabilities than the conventional radio telescope, and the world's largest Puerto RicoArecibo ObservatoryIt has about 2 times the viewing angle, so that it has the ability to search a wider range.


Shots where you can see the surrounding streets. Compared with roads and neighboring buildings, you can see how FAST is a huge structure.


Six towers are built around a huge mortar-shaped mirror, and six wires are used to place the measuring device at the focal position of the mirror.


The mirror surface is made of triangular panels made of 4450 mesh metal mesh, and it has a mechanism to change the orientation of each panel hydraulically toward the direction you want to observe.


The back side of the mesh mirror looks like this.


You can see that the mesh structure is visible through the other side.


State of the control room that operates FAST


It is a pattern that there is a huge server rack.


Construction of FAST started from 2011. The Chinese government has regarded the construction of this observatory as a symbol of the development of the country, and a budget of 1.2 billion yuan (about 18.2 billion yen) has been cast. At the time of this construction, in order to eliminate the influence of radio waves and light emitted by humans and to create a good observation environment, a policy has been announced to move 10,000 residents living in the surrounding radius of 5 km.


Many photos of FAST are also released on the following sites.

FAST - Homepage
http://fast.bao.ac.cn/en/