GLOBAL EYE
TECHNOLOGY
CHINA’S ENORMOUS RADIO TELESCOPE IS GET TING EVEN BIGGER
WORDS ANDREW JONES
China has kicked off a second phase of construction to enhance the capabilities of what is already the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope. The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), situated in Guizhou, China, has been operating since January 2020. But now a second phase will add 24 new moveable radio telescopes, each with a diameter of 40 metres. Construction officially started on 25 September, on the eighth anniversary of FAST’s completion. This expansion, named the FAST Core Array, aims to make use of the quiet electromagnetic environment that exists within a threemile radius around the telescope.