An up-close look at the world’s largest radio telescope located in China

CBS News recently had the lucky opportunity to send one of their reporters to China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The reporter got an up-close and personal look at the inner workings of the enormous, awe-inspiring telescope.

The telescope, located in Pingtang, Guizhou province, is three times more sensitive than the Arecibo telescope was. The 500-meter satellite dish covers an area of about the size of five football fields, easily making it the world’s largest radio telescope.

FAST utilizes an active surface made up of many metal panels that can be adjusted to allow the telescope to focus on different areas of space. The cabin, which contains the feed antenna, is suspended via cables at the center of the large dish. This instrument receives signals from all different directions.

Back in 2017, FAST had discovered two new pulsars, PSR J1859-01 and PSR J1931-02. These pulsars are 16,000 and 4,100 light-years from Earth, respectively. A year later, in September 2018, FAST had discovered an impressive 44 new pulsars.

Below are some of the views that CBS News’ reporter was granted of the amazing facility.

If you would like to take a look at the video filmed by CBS News at the telescope, you can click here to be redirected to their website.

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