New monster Chinese Telescope, the next ET hunter

Construction has begun in the Guizhou Province in southern China where the world's largest single dish radio telescope will take up residency in a natural depression in the landscape, not dissimilar to the world-famous Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. However, FAST will be bigger, faster and more sensitive than Arecibo.

The construction is planned to be achieved in 2016 and will feature a 500m diameter dish (300m for the Arecibo telescope) with more than 4000 triangular aluminum panels suspended inside the dish, each of which can be adjusted to deform the dish's overall shape.

Arecibo's fixed-dish design means it can only use 221 meters of its 305-meter dish at any one time. FAST will have the collecting power of the entire 305 meter Arecibo dish, and will be able to scan more of the sky in doing so -- it will be able to "tilt" its viewing angle 40 degrees from the vertical in all directions, a luxury Arecibo never had.

The FAST concept began life as the Chinese contribution to the international Square Kilometer Array (SKA), but the SKA project will eventually find a home in either South Africa or Australia, using an array of smaller radio antennae, mimicking a single large telescope. In 2006, China decided to go it alone with FAST and devoted funds to its construction.

Not only will the adaptive shape of FAST enable astronomers to direct this powerful radio antenna with ease, its sensitivity will be second to none. It will be able to "see" three times deeper into space than Arecibo and generate the sharpest ever radio observations of interstellar gas, pulsars, supernovae, black hole emissions and join the effort to hunt for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.

Read the full paper here

Also read here and here for more information.

No doubt that it will be another piece to the puzzle for the ET research outisde out solar system.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's a little comparison I've made of both telescopes:

1- Arecibo



Wavelength radio (1-10 ghZ)
Built 1963
Telescope style spherical reflector
Diameter 305 m (1,000 ft)
Collecting area 73,000 square meters (790,000 sq ft)
Focal length 265.109 m

2- FAST



Wavelength radio (0.3-5.1 GHz)
Built 2016 (prevision)
Telescope style spherical reflector with adaptative surface
Diameter 500 m (1,640 ft)
Collecting area +/-160,000 square meters (1.740.000 sq ft)
Focal length 140 m
Pointing precision 4 arc/s

reply to post by elevenaugust


Thanks for this info, now we just need a chinese founded seti project and im ready to help
Go china ! I really hope they are going to focus on finding alien signals in space with that mother

In connection with the thread about USA's military spending... How much does this project cost and how many poor people would it have fed?

You can't eat knowledge.

Brilliant thread, thanks for sharing.

I've just been thinking since reading about China and how they rarely do things off their own back. They usually steal secrets and other industrial espionage. (no doubt most other nations do the same). My point is, if they are stealing as much stuff as people say they are, is there a possibility that they may know something is out there from other countries top-secret research?

Originally posted by kykweer
In connection with the thread about USA's military spending... How much does this project cost and how many poor people would it have fed?

You can't eat knowledge.

So I assume this was your last post because you are going to cancel your internet connection and sell your computer so that you can use the money to feed the poor.

Thus, if you never post again, I will respect you as a committed humanitarian who sticks to her/his principles.

If you do post again, we will all know that you are just a hot-air bloviating hypocrite.

At any rate, knowledge has fed more people and kept them healthier than any other single cause in history.

Can we hope to find Alien traces within six months?
Because that is the average life span of anything I have bought that is Made in china.
But seriously all the sci fi movies have the Aliens talking in robotic English , imagine the confusion amongst the aliens when they are confronted with mastering the Chinese Language.

reply to post by Saint Exupery


Well in actuality you could be the smartest person in the world but if you don't have food your gonna die so no knowledge has never fed anyone, food has. You obviously are either trolling or missing this persons point which is a valid one concerning government funds used for this as opposed to things that would actually help people with either welfare, medical needs, or infrastructure in the country.

Tell me what's gonna happen if they do find alien signals? What would you do? Everyone on ATS would be like "see we told you so" and then tomorrow will be just like today.

There is nothing tangible about knowing aliens exist as most of us on here already do so why waste the money?

reply to post by kro32


well first this telescope wont be dedicated to finding ET. As for looking for intelligent life humans have asked the same questions for thousands of years. What is our place in the universe how do we fit in? are we unique, rare or common?. Are we alone?

to you there's nothing tangible in answering that question. I suppose your looking for a profit or some advanced technology gain? Not the acquisition of knowledge which has social & philosophical ramifications for our civilization.

Originally posted by Saint Exupery

Originally posted by kykweer
In connection with the thread about USA's military spending... How much does this project cost and how many poor people would it have fed?

You can't eat knowledge.

So I assume this was your last post because you are going to cancel your internet connection and sell your computer so that you can use the money to feed the poor.

Thus, if you never post again, I will respect you as a committed humanitarian who sticks to her/his principles.

If you do post again, we will all know that you are just a hot-air bloviating hypocrite.

At any rate, knowledge has fed more people and kept them healthier than any other single cause in history.

No, not gonna feel guilty about my internet connection and I work in rural areas building roads everyday of my life, so I thing its ok to pay R59 (+-$8) a month on internet. But you completely missed my point as I wasn't being hypocritical either.

If you bothered to read my post a second time,(as you clearly didn't understand the first time), you would notice that I was referring to the actual hypocrites that complain about american military spending (which also does a lot of good around the world as everyone in the army can't be a complete ****. They give food to hungry people (with the money from "military spending" too...

So anyway its ok to spend millions if not billions on finding a needle in a haystack?

Cool man

Cool off your head man.

NUKE it.

I don't concur with Chinese Scientists beaming Microwaves on the United States and the Gulf of Mexico as they admitted here:

www.springerlink.com...

"so their satellites in space can get better pictures and data of the United States and the GULF OF MEXICO"

Look into the scientists that wrote that paper. One's a engineer/metallurgist. Could he have heated up a tiny part on the Deep Horizon causing it to explode/fail???

Why not? China's admitted to USING MICROWAVES on the United States for military purposes.

reply to post by kro32


If aliens/otherworldly signals were found then it would ignite another space race of sorts and people would be inspired to get back into the sciences. Funding for space exploration and technology would increase 10 fold at least and we would finally begin to start developing space and exploring other planets

The frontiers of science are being pushed, and perhaps it is a good thing. The new telescope will give more of a picture to the current view and information that we have of the universe. And if there is proof of intelligent life out in the stars, then we should think about what it would do to the general population of the world. Too many variables exist, as the universe is a big place, the chances are astronomical that the telescope will be able to pick up that one grain of salt that is on the beach. And if it does, perhaps it will give some comfort to know that we are not alone in the world, that just maybe, we are seeing the dawn of a new age in our species. However, before we get our hopes up, and make contact the question should be, should we? After all, many have thought about and questioned this very question, and ultimately the latter is to err on the side of caution. From our own history, when one group who is advanced encounters a less advanced group, the results are neither good or advantageous for either side. Many practicle applications and problems would have to be overcome before such could be done safely. While there may be intelligent life, the question would have to be asked, do they want to contact this world, of what they would view as primative for reasons of benevolence or malevolence. Such is something that all should think about.

reply to post by sdcigarpig

Nice post, and to answer your question, I think that this is inevitable.

There are two main questions that still remains in the Human history:
Is there something after the death? and
Are we alone in the Universe?
Beside the fact that these two questions could have answers in common, IMO, we are really on the verge to finally find answers, as our knowledge continue to progress in an exponential way.

We are closer to the frontiers that we have never been; I have the strong intuition that we will have the incredible chance to be the witnesses of the human kind to cross these borders.