Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope
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FAST, or the Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, first proposed in 1994, is a radio telescope to be built by 2013 in Pingtang County 平塘县 near Duyun, capital of the Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture 黔南布依族苗族自治州, Guizhou Province 贵州, southwest China.
It will have 4,600 panels and be similar in design to the Arecibo Observatory, utilizing a natural hollow (karst) to provide support for the telescope dish. As the name suggests, it will have a diameter of 500m (one Li_(Chinese_unit) (里, lǐ)).
It will use an adaptive surface that adjusts to create parabolas in different directions, with an effective dish size of 300m. This means that, unlike Arecibo, it will not be confined to pointing directly upwards.
The chief scientist of the project Nan Rendong, a researcher with the Chinese National Astronomical Observatory, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
[edit] References
- Nan, R.; et al. (16 June 2002). "Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope - KARST" (PDF).
- spacedaily.com; staff (23 November 2006). China To Build World's Largest Radio Telescope (HTML).
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