China's Fast sky eye Telescope: The world's largest radio telescope

The telescope is mounted on a hill in southern China, with a huge metal body that looks up at the sky. It is the largest and most powerful radio telescope in the world. It has been fully operational since the last twelve January.

The official name of the telescope is the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, better known by its acronym 'Fast'.

China Calls This Telescope “Sky Eye Telescope”

It is bigger and more powerful. The Fast Telescope will search the deepest and darkest corners of the universe to find out how this world was created and whether life exists elsewhere.

As the name suggests, this telescope has a diameter of half a kilometer. The previous large telescope was at the Archivo Observatory in Puerto Rico, with a diameter of 305 meters.

Before the construction of the sky eye telescope Fast Telescope began in September 2016, the Archivo Radio Telescope was the largest telescope in the world in terms of category.

Fast is not only the largest instrument, it is 2.5 times more sensitive than any radio telescope currently in operation. Discussions about the telescope began in the 1990s, but it took nearly two decades for that to happen. In 2016, its effectiveness was tested for the first time.

What is the mission of the Fast sky eye telescope?

The makers of the Fast Telescope hope that the signals that this radio telescope will be able to capture will unravel the mystery of the creation of the universe and the evolutionary information.

Its main function is to search for gravitational waves. At the same time, it will study the dark elements of the universe and find out if there is a civilization anywhere else in the universe.

The most striking feature of the telescope is its ability to quickly detect data from the universe's wave blasts (FRB's). This kind of intense energy explosion lasts only in milliseconds. The cause of such an explosion is still a mystery to astronomers. So any new information found in this case will be accepted by the data scientists with interest.

"This telescope will be an excellent instrument for detecting and researching FRBs," said Victoria Caspi, an astronomer at McGill University in Canada.

"It can also give us information about the emission process and maybe its source."

The Arecibo radio telescope can collect as many radio waves as it can at twice the speed of Fast.

"Fast will greatly increase our ability to search for cosmic signals, in which case our ability is still weak," said Min Eun, a professor of astronomy at the University of Massachusetts.

During the first test, Fast identified 102 new pulsars. A pulsar is a type of rotating star that emits radiation at regular intervals.

"This is a remarkable achievement," University of British Columbia astronomer Bill McCutcheon told the BBC. "This method of rediscovery will undoubtedly be an interesting thing."

Scientists are being inspired by the fast telescope's ability to search for gaseous substances in space, such as hydrogen. This allows them to observe the movement of galaxies.

How much did it cost to make ' sky eye telescope?

Fast, set in the Dawadang Depression, a natural circular valley in southwestern China, has cost ৮ 180 million. This telescope has 4400 aluminum panels, which can focus in different directions of the sky.

This capability has given fast a special advantage over previous telescopes, says Martha Hines, an astronomer at Cornell University.

"Archivo's panels can't work so effectively," he says, '' Fast's optical system allows you to work across a much wider area of ​​the sky. There are some areas in it that do not fall under Arecibo now” he says.

China’s ‘sky eye telescope’ can cover much more area than other telescopes, which means it can detect many more cosmic objects, see more cosmic phenomena, and explore potential life better.

Challenges Of The Future: Sky Eye Telescope

According to Martha Hynes, the information that Fast Telescope will collect will be managed efficiently in the next big challenge. The telescope also has to isolate or mitigate man-made radio waves.

Lastly, Ms. Highness says the Fast Team needs to create new types of equipment and software that can properly manage the data collected by this device.

"There are a lot of big challenges ahead, but fast also has a lot of expectations for astronomers," says McCutcheon.