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Chinese Pulsar Timing Array
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST; ), nicknamed Tianyan (, lit. "Sky's/Heaven's Eye"), is a radio telescope located in the Dawodang depression (), a natural basin in Pingtang County, Guizhou, southwestern China. FAST has a diameter dish constructed in a natural depression in the landscape. It is the world's largest single-dish telescope. It has a novel design, using an active surface made of 4,500 metal panels which form a moving parabola shape in real time. The cabin containing the antenna feed, feed antenna, suspended on cables above the dish, can move automatically by using winches to steer the instrument to receive signals from different directions. It observes at wavelengths of 10 cm to 4.3 m. Construction of FAST began in 2011. It observed First light (astronomy), first light in September 2016. After three years of testing and commissioning, it was declared fully operational on 11 January 2020. The telescope made its first discovery, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio Telescope
A radio telescope is a specialized antenna (radio), antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, just as optical telescopes are used to make observations in the visible light, visible portion of the spectrum in traditional optical astronomy. Unlike optical telescopes, radio telescopes can be used in the daytime as well as at night. Since astronomical radio sources such as planets, stars, nebulas and galaxy, galaxies are very far away, the radio waves coming from them are extremely weak, so radio telescopes require very large antennas to collect enough radio energy to study them, and extremely sensitive receiving equipment. Radio telescopes are typically large Parabolic antenna, parabolic ("dish") antennas similar to those employed in tracking and communicating with satellites an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
