China FAST Sky Eye Radio Telescope

the p>5 spherical radio telescope, referred to as FAST for short, is the largest single-aperture spherical radio telescope in the world, and is also known as the "Eye of the Sky" in China.

located in the karst depression of Dawodang, Kedu Town, Pingtang County, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, the project is a major national science and technology infrastructure. The "Eye of the Sky" project consists of active reflector system, feed support system, measurement and control system, receiver and terminal, and observation base.

The idea was put forward by Chinese astronomer Nan Rendong in 1994. It took 22 years to build and was put into use on September 25th, 216. It is the largest single-aperture and most sensitive radio telescope in the world, which is led by the National Astronomical Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences and has independent intellectual property rights in China.

As of August 28th, 219, 132 high-quality pulsar candidates have been discovered by the 5-meter spherical radio telescope, of which 93 have been confirmed as newly discovered pulsars. On January 11, 22, the 5-meter spherical radio telescope passed the national acceptance and was put into official operation.

FAST is one of the nine national science and technology infrastructures determined by the National Leading Group for Science and Education. It is a high-sensitivity giant radio telescope with the size of about 3 football fields, which is designed by scientists in China and has unique terrain conditions in karst depressions in southern Guizhou.

FAST can extend China's space measurement and control capability from geosynchronous orbit to the outer edge of the solar system, and increase the downlink rate of deep space communication data by 1 times.

Its application value can be to make pulsar clock for the prospective research of autonomous navigation. Diagnose and identify weak spatial signals to serve national security; Provide high resolution and high efficiency ground observation; Tracking and detecting coronal mass ejections serves the space weather forecast.

the scientific significance of the p>FAST project is very significant. Building a telescope is aimed at the frontier of science in the 21st century, looking for dark matter and dark energy. Now 99% of the mass and energy in the universe know its existence, but don't know what its characteristics are.

FAST not only excites astronomers in China, but also stares at it all over the world-hoping that the biggest "eye of heaven" may find aliens and solve the mystery of the origin of the universe.

The FAST engineer of the National Astronomical Observatory said that the ability of the Eye of the Sky is closely related to its size.

simply put, the bigger your eyes, the farther you can see. What is particularly special is that this "eye of the sky" is not a "dead eye". The structure of FAST's cable net can change automatically with the movement of celestial bodies, driving the 4,45 reflective panels moving on the cable net to change, which is enough to observe celestial bodies in a larger sky area.

At the same time, the feed cabin also moves with the cable net to collect the radio waves emitted by celestial bodies. Just as human beings turn their eyes and adjust the direction of their eyes, there will be no dead ends in the distant space for them.

how far is the vision of China's "Eye of the Sky"? According to experts, even radio signals that are tens of billions of light years away.

China's "Eye of the Sky" may also capture and discover the giant maser galaxy with high red shift, and realize the first observation breakthrough of methanol maser outside the Milky Way. Used for searching and identifying possible interstellar communication signals, searching for extraterrestrial civilization and so on.

Zheng xiaonian, deputy director of the national astronomical observatory and executive deputy commander of the FAST project, stressed that "tianyan" has the ability to patrol neutral hydrogen in the universe, detect interstellar molecules, observe pulsars and search for interstellar communication signals.

As a multi-disciplinary basic research platform, FAST can discover about 7, pulsars in one year, and study the material structure and physical laws in extreme states.

It is hopeful to discover strange stars and quark stars. The neutron star-black hole binary star is found, and it is not necessary to rely on the model to accurately determine the mass of black holes < P >. Detecting gravitational waves by accurately measuring the arrival time of pulsars; As the largest station, join the international very long baseline network to image the ultra-fine structure of celestial bodies.

China Eye of the Sky can improve its sensitivity by about 1 times compared with the 1-meter-caliber telescope in Eifelsberg, Germany, which is known as the "largest machine on the ground".

Compared with the 3-meter-caliber radio telescope in Arecibo, USA, which was rated as the top ten engineering projects of the 2th century, the sensitivity of Eye of the Sky is 2.25 times.

FAST can extend China's space measurement and control capability from geosynchronous orbit to the outer edge of the solar system, and increase the downlink rate of deep space communication data by 1 times.

The measurement accuracy of pulsar arrival time is improved from 12 nanoseconds to 3 nanoseconds, making it the most accurate pulsar timing array in the world, and making pulsar clocks for the prospective research of autonomous navigation.

Carry out high-resolution microwave patrol, diagnose and identify weak space signals with 1HZ resolution, and serve the national security as a passive strategic radar.

based on the powerful function of FAST, if there are aliens in the galaxy, their information is likely to be discovered.

Dan Woximer, the chief scientist of the international scientific research project "Searching for Aliens", recently proposed to the Chinese side that he hoped to install equipment in FAST and cooperate in searching for alien signals.

Most pulsars that have been discovered so far are in the Milky Way, and FAST can explore in the space 2 million light years away. FAST can pass the "drift scan".

The simultaneous scanning observation of neutral hydrogen, pulsars, galactic structure and molecular spectral lines is unprecedented for other telescopes in the world.

As the largest single-aperture telescope in the world, FAST will maintain its first-class position in the world in the next 2 to 3 years.

The brand-new design idea and the unique site advantage have enabled it to break through the 1-meter engineering limit of the telescope and create a new mode of building a giant radio telescope.