PINGTANG: Nestled among the mountains in southwest China, the world's largest radio telescope signals Beijing's ambitions as a global centre for scientific research.
The Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) - the only significant instrument of its kind after the collapse of another telescope in Puerto Rico this month - is about to open its doors for foreign astronomers to use, hoping to attract the world's top scientific talent.
The world's second-largest radio telescope, at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, was destroyed when its suspended 900-tonne receiver platform came loose and plunged 140 metres (450 feet) onto the radio dish below.
Wang Qiming, chief inspector of FAST's operations and development centre, told AFP during a rare visit by the foreign press last week that he had visited Arecibo.
"We drew a lot of inspiration from its structure, which we gradually improved to build our telescope."
The Chinese installation in Pingtang, Guizhou province, is up to three times more sensitive than the US-owned one, and is surrounded by a five-kilometre (three-mile) "radio silence" zone where mobile phones and computers are not allowed.
Work on the FAST began in 2011 and it started full operations in January this year, working mainly to capture the radio signals emitted by celestial bodies, in particular pulsars - rapidly rotating dead stars.
The 500-metre giant satellite dish is easily the world's largest - covering the area of 30 football pitches - and cost 1.1 billion yuan ($175 million) to build, as well as displacing thousands of villagers to make room for it.
China has been rapidly boosting its scientific credentials to become less reliant on foreign technology. The world's most populous country has so far only won one scientific Nobel Prize - awarded in 2015 to chemist Tu Youyou.
But in the past two decades, China has built the largest high-speed train network in the world, finalised its Beidou geolocation system - a competitor of the American GPS - and is now in the process of bringing lunar samples back to Earth.
China is pouring billions into its military-run space programme and has published a plan to become by 2035 a world leader in artificial intelligence, space, clean energy and robotics.
The data being collected by FAST should allow for a better understanding of the origins of the universe - and aid in the search for alien life.
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