Get to know the universe better, and even detect extraterrestrials: the Fast radio telescope, the largest in the world with its diameter of 500 meters, has become the symbol of China's arrival among the world leaders in research.
Nestled in the verdant Pingtang Mountains in Guizhou province, this giant satellite dish, as large as 30 football fields, will open its powerful measurement capabilities to foreign astronomers in 2021.
Built between 2011 and 2016 and fully operational since January, the Fast has become even more valuable since the collapse in early December of the second largest radio telescope in the world, that of Arecibo (305 meters), an American infrastructure installed in Puerto Rico.
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VIDEO.
Puerto Rico: The giant Arecibo radio telescope completely destroyed https://www.leparisien.fr/video/video-porto-rico-le-radiotelescope-geant-d-arecibo-entierement-detruit-02-12-2020-8411930 .php
" Radio silence "
The objective of the parabola is to capture the radio signals emitted by the celestial bodies, in particular the pulsars, dead stars turning on themselves.
These waves make it possible, among other things, to reconstruct an image of the objects observed.
And the data collected helps astronomers better understand the origins of the universe.
Another objective of the site: "to detect possible extraterrestrial civilizations," specifies Wang Qiming, head of the Fast's operations and development center, under the immense parabola made up of 4,450 metal panels.
To prevent the waves emitted by humans and their devices (smartphones, cars, light bulbs, computers) from disturbing the measurements, the site is surrounded by a “radio silence” zone with a radius of 5 km.
Thousands of villagers have been expropriated for its establishment.
