Alien hunter: China completes world's largest telescope
$180 million 500 meter-wide Chinese radio telescope, the size of 30 football fields, searching for intelligent life in other galaxies, soon to begin operation.
$180 million 500 meter-wide Chinese radio telescope, the size of 30 football fields, searching for intelligent life in other galaxies, soon to begin operation.
SCIENCE
China completes World's largest telescope
China's is finishing up what is to be the world's largest radio telescope.
The telescope surpasses the size the current record - holder Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory that is around 300 meters wide in diameter.
When the telescope begins operation in September, it will be used to explore space as well as search for other living things in the universe (extraterrestial life, search for alien life, search for intelligent life outside of our galaxy.
A reported 10,000 people have been relocated to make way for the world's largest telescope, each receiving 12,000 yuan ($1,800) to move and some extra support for housing.
Reflector panel being put in place at China's FAST radio telescope (Source: YouTube)
RADIO TELESCOPES
Radio telescopes are typically large dish-shaped antennas like those used to communicate with satellites.
They receive radio waves from astronomical radio sources such as stars, nebulas and galaxies in the sky.
These stars and galaxies are very far away, so the signals are very weak.
This means the larger the antenna is, the more radio energy can be collected to study them.
Radio telescopes must be located far from major cities to avoid electromagnetic interference (EMI) from radio, television and motor vehicles.
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (Source: Wikipedia)
ARECIBO OBSERVATORY
The previous world record holder for largest telescope, Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, has been featured in many films, TV shows and computer games.
Most famously, the radio telescope was used for the climax of the 1995 James Bond movie Golden Eye in which James Bond and his girl slide down the telescope (see video below).
The 1997 film Contact (1997) based on a novel by Carl Sagan features the radio telescope as part of a searching for extraterrestial life. (see full list here).
CHINA'S SPACE EXPLORATION PROGRAM
As well as upping investment in astronomy, Beijing is accelerating its multi-billion-dollar space exploration programme, with plans for a permanent orbiting space station by 2020 and eventually a manned mission to the moon.
Beijing is due to launch a "core module" for its first space station in 2018.
THE ARECIBO MESSAGE TO LIFE IN ANOTHER GALAXY
The Arecibo message is a digital message sent to globular star cluster M13, and is a well-known symbol of human attempts to contact extraterrestrials. (Source: Wikipedia)
The Arecibo Observatory is also famous for the so-called Arecibo Message that was sent in a three minute broadcast into outer space in 1974, aimed at the star cluster M13 located 25,000 light years away from earth.
The message included many things that an alien might be able to recognise and understand, such as:
1. Numbers one to ten (white)
2. The atomic numbers of chemical elements in DNA (purple)
3. Formulas for the sugars and bases in the nucleotides of DNA (green)
4. The number of nucleotides in DNA, and a graphic of the double helix structure of DNA (white & blue)
5. A graphic figure of a human, the dimension (physical height) of an average man, and the human population of Earth (red, blue/white, & white respectively)
6. A graphic of the Solar System indicating which of the planets the message is coming from (yellow)
7. A graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope and the dimension (the physical diameter) of the transmitting antenna dish (purple, white, & blue)
However, the message would take 25,000 years to reach the star cluster and an additional 25,000 years for a reply, so according to a press release in 1999 "the real purpose of the message was not to make contact but to demonstrate the capabilities of newly installed equipment" (see here).
Typical radio telescope, the 170-meter in diameter Russian RT-70 (Source: Wikipedia)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-36700664
http://www.bangkokpost.com/archive/china-starts-assembling-world-biggest-radio-telescope/633656
http://www.bangkokpost.com/archive/china-space-telescope-to-displace-humans-in-search-for-aliens/866216
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/16/china-relocates-9000-people-fast-telescope-search-for-aliens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_telescope
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Observatory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_hundred_meter_Aperture_Spherical_Telescope
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