The World’s Largest Radio Telescope – Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), is being constructed in Guizhou province of south west China.
The telescope’s dish size will be equivalent to 30 football fields. The assembly of the world’s largest radio telescope begun on 23 July 2015.
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is an Aricibo-type telescope. It is funded by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and managed by the National Astronomical observatories (NAOC) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
FAST is being built in the Dawodang depression in Guizhou Province. The natural landscape provides perfect size and shape for the construction of telescope.
The ground also provides enough support for the gigantic telescope. The porous soil forms an underground drainage system to protect the telescope.
Once completed, FAST will be the world’s largest telescope, overtaking Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory which is 300 meters in diameter. The construction of the FAST started in March 2011. The project is now expect to be completed by September 2016.
The gigantic radio telescope will cost approximately 1.2 billion Yuan.