More facts about China's FAST telescope
- Construction on FAST began in 2011. After it observed first light in September 2016, it took three more years of testing and commissioning before it was declared fully operational on January 11, 2020. (China Daily)
- The 1.2-billion-yuan (US$171-million) telescope, also known as Tianyan or ‘Eye of Heaven’, took half a decade to build in the remote Dawodang depression in the Guizhou province of southwest China (Nature)
- FAST will collect radio waves from an area twice the size of the next-largest single-dish telescope, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. (Nature)
- The 500-metre-wide dish is made up of around 4,400 individual aluminum panels that more than 2,000 mechanical winches tilt and maneuver to focus on different areas of the sky. (Nature)
- During FAST’s construction, a 65-person village was relocated from the valley to make room for the telescope and an additional 9,110 people living within a 5 km radius of the telescope were relocated to create a radio-quiet area. (Xinhua)
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