The "Eye of Heaven": the world's largest radio telescope

In 2003 China placed its first astronaut in space and since then it has not stopped advancing in its space program, which includes launching satellites, a space station, unmanned ships to the moon and, now, the construction of the radio telescope The world's largest, the "Eye of Heaven."

The "Eye of Heaven", the world's largest radio telescope

Remember the first scenes of Contact , that movie based on a novel by Carl Sagan and in which Jodie Foster epitomizes an astronomy that runs into an extraterrestrial life signal captured by the radio telescope from Arecibo (Puerto Rico)? At that time, with its 350 meters in diameter, Arecibo was the largest radio telescope in the world, but it is no longer so, now it is Tianyan , which translated from Mandarin would become “the Eye of Heaven.”

This radio telescope, built in Pintang County (Guizhou Province), for a period of five years and with an approximate cost of 160 million euros, It is officially called Five hundred meters Spherical Opening Radio Telescope ( FAST ), precisely because it has a 500 meter diameter plate, consisting of 4,450 panels and which could fit 30 soccer fields.

In the words of one of the Chinese scientists of this project, Nan Rendong , a radio telescope is "like a very ear sensitive, which listens to and distinguishes significant radio messages from the white noise of the universe ”; and I add: "is like identifying the sound of the cicadas in a thunder storm" .

To ensure the proper functioning of this extraordinary equipment, a must be created “Area of silence” of 5km around the observatory , to avoid electromagnetic interference, and more than 8,000 people were evacuated, transferred to a building complex in a neighboring city.

It is likely that For the next two decades, the Eye of Heaven is the largest radio telescope in the world, and among its objectives would be the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life, the study of gravitational waves, and the exploration of distant corners of the universe as far as we have not yet arrived with this kind of equipment.

During the first two years, the radio telescope will be used exclusively by Chinese technicians and astronomers, but will then be integrated into the network of global observatories that investigate and try c omprender the secrets of the universe.

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For the contemplation of this wonderful structure, the Chinese government built an astronomical park, about 10 kilometers away from the Eye of Heaven, to receive about 2,000 national tourists daily and from other corners of the world, who will have to turn off their cell phones to get closer to the Eye of Heaven.Turn off their artificial ears to be able to hear from the most powerful ear on our planet.Would you dare to go?

You We recommend our article on The Hum, the mysterious sound that affects countless countries.

Images: akademy, Wayne England

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