China FAST Sky Eye Radio Telescope

The 500-meter spherical radio telescope, referred to as FAST, is the largest single-aperture spherical radio telescope in the world, also known as the "eye of the sky" in China.

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

This idea was put forward by China astronomer Nan Zai 1994, which took 22 years to build and was put into use on September 25th, 20 16. 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, 20 19, 500-meter spherical radio telescope has found 132 high-quality pulsar candidates, of which 93 have been confirmed as newly discovered pulsars. On June 65438+1October1day, 2020, the 500-meter spherical radio telescope passed the national acceptance and was officially put into operation.

FAST is one of the nine national science and technology infrastructures identified by the National Leading Group for Science and Education. It is a high-sensitivity giant radio telescope designed by Chinese scientists with unique terrain conditions in karst depression in southern Guizhou, and it is about 30 football fields in size.

FAST can extend China's space TT&C capability from geosynchronous orbit to the outer edge of the solar system, and increase the downlink rate of deep space communication data by 100 times.

Its application value can be used 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 serve the space weather forecast.

The scientific significance of the FAST project is very significant. The telescope was built to look for dark matter and dark energy, aiming at the scientific frontier of 2 1 century. Now 99% of the mass and energy in the universe know its existence, but they don't know what its characteristics are.

FAST not only excites astronomers in China, but the whole world is staring at it-hoping that the biggest "eye of the sky" may discover aliens and solve the mystery of the origin of the universe.

FAST engineers and technicians from the National Astronomical Observatory said that the ability of "Eye of the Sky" to listen to the external audio of the earth 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". FAST's cable net structure can automatically change with the movement of celestial bodies, driving the 4450 reflecting plates 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 sight, there will be no dead ends in distant space for them.

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

China's "Eye of the Sky" may also capture and discover the giant maser galaxy with high redshift, and realize the first observation breakthrough of methanol maser outside the Milky Way. Used to search and identify possible interstellar communication signals, search 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 "Eye of the Sky" 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 7,000 pulsars a year to study the material structure and physical laws in extreme states.

It is hopeful to find strange stars and quark busters; The discovery of neutron star-black hole binary does not depend on the model to accurately determine the mass of black holes.

; Detecting gravitational waves by accurately measuring the arrival time of pulsars; As the largest station, it joined the international very long baseline network to image the ultra-fine structure of celestial bodies.

Compared with the China Eye of the Sky 100 meter aperture telescope, which is called "the largest machine on the ground", its sensitivity can be improved by about 10 times.

Compared with the American Arecibo 300-meter-caliber radio telescope, which was rated as one of the top ten projects in the 20th century, the sensitivity of Sky Eye is 2.25 times.

FAST can extend China's space TT&C capability from geosynchronous orbit to the outer edge of the solar system, and increase the downlink rate of deep space communication data by 100 times.

The measurement accuracy of pulsar arrival time is improved from 120 nanoseconds to 30 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 spatial signals with a resolution of 1HZ, and serve national security as a passive strategic radar.

Based on the powerful function of FAST, if there are aliens in the Milky Way, 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 of the pulsars that have been discovered so far are in the Milky Way, and FAST can explore in a space of 2 million light years. Fast can pass the "drift scan".

At the same time, the synchronous scanning observation of neutral hydrogen, pulsars, galaxy structures and molecular spectral lines is unprecedented in other telescopes in the world.

As the largest single-aperture telescope in the world, FAST will maintain its world-class status in the next 20 to 30 years.

Brand-new design ideas, coupled with the unique advantages of the site, make it break through the 100-meter engineering limit of the telescope and create a new mode of building a giant radio telescope.