The five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), a massive array that just finished construction in the southwestern province of Guizhou, China is equivalent in size to over 20 football fields joined end to end and the world’s largest radio telescope.
As part of China’s growing commitment to space exploration, the FAST telescope will spend the coming decades exploring space and assisting in the hunt for extraterrestrial life. And once it commences operations this coming September, the Chinese expect it will remain the global leader in radio astronomy for the next ten or twenty years.
The telescope is reportedly 10 times more sensitive than its closest competitors. It is capable of forming a parabolic mirror and will allow researchers a greater degree of flexibility.