Center for World’s Largest Single-Dish Radio Telescope

Article by Li Yan                            April 14, 2020                           (ecns.cn)

• China’s ‘National Development and Reform Commission’ has approved a feasibility study for a data processing center to support the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope in the Guizhou Province. Experts believe the massive radio telescope will significantly improve the study of the universe, including the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

• The $24.14 million center for ‘China Sky Eye’, which will technically support the “FAST” radio telescope, contains a scientific research and data processing center to facilitate observation, scientific research, and data storage. The center will facilitate the calculation of the enormous amount of data generated by the telescope.

• Senior technology expert Xiang Ligang said that data is constantly being produced from the telescope and is then stored and analyzed, including information about the births and deaths of planets and extraterrestrial life. Says Xiang, “Recording both pulsar and hydrogen data streams requires a massive process of information collection, storage and analysis. The establishment of the center will undoubtedly play an important role in information screening and discovery, and help produce more discoveries and research results in the study of the universe.”

• FAST has already accumulated a total of 1,000 hours of observation time, one-third of its entire mission for this year. It has detected and certified 114 pulsars (ie: stars or other celestial bodies that emit radio wave pulses). In the next three to five years, the FAST telescope and processing center will likely lead to breakthroughs in low-frequency gravitational wave detection, the origins of rapid radio bursts and interstellar molecules.

A feasibility report for the FAST scientific research and data processing center, to be built in Guizhou Province, has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.

Experts believe the center will significantly improve the study of the universe — including the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

With a total investment of roughly 170 million yuan ($24.14 million), the center for China Sky Eye, the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope known as FAST, will facilitate three scientific research frameworks — observation, scientific research and data – providing support for the storage and calculation of massive data generated by long-term operations, media reported.

Xiang Ligang, a senior technology expert, told the Global Times on Monday that in theory, data is being produced from the telescope constantly and is then stored and analyzed, including information about the births and deaths of planets and extraterrestrial life.

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