Installation of world’s largest radio telescope has completed on Sunday morning as the last of 4,450 panels was fitted into the center of the big dish. It is having a reflector of the size of 30 football fields and is poised for a trial-run as installation work has been completed after the last of 4,450 panels was fitted into the centre of the big dish on Sunday.
300 people, including builders, experts, science fiction enthusiasts and reporters, witnessed the installation at a karst valley in Pingtang County in the southwestern province of Guizhou.
“The telescope is of great significance for humans to explore the universe and extraterrestrial civilizations… I hope scientists can make epoch-making discoveries,” Liu Cixin, a renowned science fiction writer and winner of the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, was quoted by the agency as saying.
Work on the telescope had started in 2011 and total cost around 1.2-billion-yuan ($180 million) has been spent.
The telescope would undergo further adjustment during the initial 2-3 years following its completion during which Chinese scientists would use it for early-stage research. Following that, it would be open to scientists worldwide, Director of the NAO Radio Astronomy Technology Laboratory Peng Bo said.
World’s Largest Telescope built in China
