Largest single-dish telescope opens to international researchers

Largest single-dish telescope opens to international researchers

Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of China/Chinese Academy of SciencesThis is the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope, or Fast forshort.

It is nestled in a natural basin surrounded by forest in Guizhouprovince in China, and is the world’s largest single-dish radio observatory.In 2021, it will be open to astronomers around the world.

The dish, nicknamedthe Sky Eye, has superior sensitivity to detect cosmic phenomena, and will beused in the search for signals from stars and galaxies and, perhaps,extraterrestrial life.