Today started to function the largest radio telescope in the world in the southwest of China, with which it expects to be able to observe much more of what we know up to now of the universe and advance in the search for life on other planets .
The radio telescope, which they christened the FAST, has an opening spherical of 500 meters in diameter, covers a surface area
the equivalent of 30 football fields, and is installed in a rural area of Guizhou province , a mountainous region of China.
The facility, whose construction began in march 2011, it cost 1,200 million yuan ($ 185 million) and exceeds the size of the radio telescope of Arecibo, located in Puerto Rico, which has a diameter of 305 meters.
it Is expected that FAST get information about the origins of the universe by mapping the distribution of hydrogen, the most abundant element in our galaxy, and to detect many more pulsars, dense star spinning that act as clocks cosmic-. This will give them the scientific ability to detect gravitational waves that provide information on the evolution of galaxies
The director general of the Chinese Society of Astronomy, Wu Xiangping, said last year to the chinese news agency Xinhua that the high degree of sensitivity of FAST was going to “help look for intelligent life outside our galaxy”. the "will help Us to find life and to explore the origins of the universe", indicated Xiangping.
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In a recent experimental trial, FAST received a series of electromagnetic waves of high quality sent from a pulsar, a neutron star, situated about 1.351 light years, as reported by Xinhua, citing Quian Lei, a research associate of the Astronomical Observation National.
At the beginning of this year, the authorities evacuated more than 8,000 people in the field to make room for the project, which requires the absence of radio signals in a radius of 5 miles to ensure an environment of sound by electromagnetic waves.
Next to other complexes and facilities of scientific that Beijing plans to build in the future, this device is designed to attract international researchers to the country, that from a few years ago is trying to get to the couple of the united States in the generation of discoveries.
See also: Discover a planet very close in that there could be life
The country also increased its investments in the field of astronomy, to accelerate its programme of space exploration, with the intention of putting into orbit a permanent station by 2020, with the objective, within a time, to send a man to the Moon.
Source: AFP and DPA
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