F.A.S.T.: THE FLAGSHIP OF RADIOTELESCOPES
“A landscape created by our human civilization.”
–Nan Rendong
In the past decades, China has been "chasing" the West in technological development and striving to be at the forefront of human evolution. This effort is attributed to the strictly disciplined people of China, who have been characterized by diligence since the time of Confucius and are renowned for their impressive construction speed and capability. However, it is also due to the continuous competition of China's unique political system, which clashes with the West in many areas, including our subject of radio astronomy. The FAST (Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope) radio telescope is an achievement of China that will push human curiosity to the edge of the universe and define a new reality for astronomical research.
The crater is 45 million years old and has a diameter of 800 meters (enough for the 519-meter dish of the radio telescope) and also features a natural flood prevention system, essential for protecting the F.A.S.T. Once the location was decided, approximately 9,000 people living within a 5-kilometer radius around the crater were relocated to prevent radio wave interference from the area surrounding the telescope. The F.A.S.T. consists of 4,450 triangular panels, six towers measuring 150 meters in height, 10,000 wire ropes, and 2,250 metal joints. Its construction was a colossal project completed in just five and a half years, with a total cost of $180 million for construction and $269 million for compensating the locals who were relocated.
The F.A.S.T. is the largest single-dish radio telescope, surpassing the previous Arecibo by approximately 200 meters in diameter. Additionally, the F.A.S.T. has a sophisticated system as described by Professor Nan Rendong, the chief scientist and engineer at F.A.S.T. It consists of a wire mesh that changes the dish by pulling it to acquire a parabolic shape and can be rotated up to 40° from its zenith to "aim" according to the observation.
One more innovation is the elevation of the telescope's observation cabin from 1 centimeter to 140 meters above the base thanks to the six support towers around the dish that are fully computer-controlled.
In 2017, F.A.S.T. detected its first two pulsars 16,000 and 4,100 light-years away, in 2018 it detected another 44, and by 2021 it had detected another 500 pulsars. It is estimated to have the ability to increase the number of known pulsars to 6,000 from the 2,000 that existed before its construction.
In June 2022, scientists working at F.A.S.T. reported that they may have detected extraterrestrial signals, although they stated that further studies would be needed to confirm the claim. However, their report was soon debunked as inaccurate, as Dan Werthimer, the lead scientist of many projects for detecting extraterrestrial intelligence, recognized that these signals were due to "interference from radio pollution from humans and not from E.T." F.A.S.T. can detect signals up to 13 billion light-years away. Additionally, it can receive signals from 0.1 to 4 meters, which will provide high-precision resolution for mapping neutral hydrogen distribution in the universe, thereby giving us more valuable data regarding the expansion of the universe and even the true nature of dark matter.
However, as stated on the official website of the radio telescope, the main goals are 5 and I list them verbatim below.
- Detection of neutral hydrogen up to the limits of the universe, reconstruction of images of the early universe.
- Discovery of pulsars, creation of a pulsar timing network and participation in navigation with pulsars and in the detection of gravitational waves in the future.
- Participation in the International Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network for acquiring ultrafine structures of celestial bodies.
- Execution of high-resolution radio spectral research. Detection of faint space signals.
- Participation in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
The F.A.S.T. radio telescope is a 'quantum leap' in radio astronomy. It is predicted to be the largest of its kind for the next 30 years and has countless amounts of knowledge to offer us thus bringing us closer to understanding the universe.”
Scientific Review: Evi Koursoumpa
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