The National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC, ) is an astronomical research institute operated by the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

, along with

Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) is an astronomical observatory in Shanghai. It has a long history of astrometry and also operates the Sheshan radio telescope as part of the Chinese VLBI array and the European VLBI Network (EVN). ...

Purple Mountain Observatory The Purple Mountain Observatory (), also known as Zijinshan Astronomical Observatory, is an astronomical observatory located on the Purple Mountain in the east of Nanjing. The observatory is responsible for calculating the official Chinese calen ...

and

National Time Service Center The National Time Service Center (NTSC; ) has the task of generating, maintaining and broadcasting standard time in China. It is located in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. Its predecessor was the Shaanxi Astronomy Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Scie ...

History and introduction

Founded on April 25, 2001, NAOC was formed through the merging of four

(CAS) observatories, three CAS observing stations and one CAS research centre. The Headquarters of the NAOC are situated in the northern Chaoyang District of

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

on the site of the former

Beijing Astronomical Observatory Beijing Astronomical Observatory (BAO) is an observatory in Chaoyang District, Beijing, China. It was founded in 1958 and is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The observatory comprises 5 observing stations. The principal observing site for ...

(BAO), and take responsibility for all matters relating to the former BAO. Currently, NAOC has 7 astronomical research departments listed follows: * Optical Astronomy Research Department (光学天文研究部) * Radio Astronomy Research Department (射电天文研究部) * Galactic Astronomy & Cosmology Research Department (星系宇宙学研究部) * Moon & Deep Space Detection Research Department (月球与深空探测研究部) * Space Science Research Department (空间科学研究部) * Solar Astrophysics Research Department (太阳物理研究部) * Applied Astronomy Research Department (应用天文研究部) Besides apparatus like 2.16m optical telescope and 50m radio telescope, NAOC also operates the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopy Telescope (LAMOST) and one of the largest radio observatory, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The future China Space Station Telescope (CSST) will also be operated by NAOC. Editorial departments of

Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics ''Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all branches of astronomy and astrophysics. It was established in 1981 as ''Acta Astrophysica Sinica'' and published in Chinese. It was renamed ''Chin ...

(RAA) and

China National Astronomy China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(中国国家天文) are located in NAOC.

Subordinate units

Direct subordinate units

NAOC currently have 4 direct subordinate units, with 2 astronomical observatory, 1 artificial satellite observing station and 1 astronomical instrument developing institute. * Yunnan Observatories, CAS, Yunnan Province * Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, CAS, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region * Changchun Observatory, National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, Jilin Province * Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics & Technologies, CAS, Jiangsu Province

Observing stations

* Xinglong Observing Station, NAOC *

Huairou Solar Observing Station The Huairou Solar Observing Station is a solar observatory in China. It is situated on the north bank of the Huairou Reservoir, in Huairou District, Beijing, about 60 km north of central Beijing. There are two telescopes. It is operated by the Na ...

, NAOC *Miyun Observing Station, NAOC *Ming'antu Observing Station, NAOC *Wulasitai Observing Station, NAOC *South America Observing Station, NAOC

Research highlights

Fast radio bursts (FRBs)

In 2019,

FAST Fast or FAST may refer to: Arts and entertainment * "Fast" (Juice Wrld song), 2019 * "Fast" (Luke Bryan song), 2016 * "Fast" (Sueco song), 2019 * "Fast" (GloToven song), 2019 * ''Fast'', an album by Custom, 2002 * ''Fast'', a 2010 short fil ...

observation to

fast radio burst In radio astronomy, a fast radio burst (FRB) is a transient radio wave of length ranging from a fraction of a millisecond, for an ultra-fast radio burst, to 3 seconds, caused by a high-energy astrophysical process as yet not understood. Astronome ...

(FRB) event FRB180301 reveals that the origin of FRBs should be inside the magnetosphere of designated object. In 2020, another FRB event FRB200428, which was later confirmed to be originated from

magnetar A magnetar is a type of neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field (~109 to 1011 T, ~1013 to 1015 G). The magnetic-field decay powers the emission of high-energy electromagnetic radiation, particularly X-rays and gamma rays.Ward; Br ...

SGR J1935+2154, was observed in detail by FAST team. Research suggests that a low correlation between FRBs and magnetar X-ray burst.

Dark matter halo

In 2020, NAOC and its collaborators performed a numerical simulation to

dark matter halo In modern models of physical cosmology, a dark matter halo is a basic unit of cosmological structure. It is a hypothetical region that has decoupled from cosmic expansion and contains gravitationally bound matter. A single dark matter halo ma ...

between galaxies. This GADGET-4 simulation, with a dynamic range over 30 magnitudes, plotted a clear structure of dark matter haloes with mass ranging from earth-size to cosmological scale. The simulation provides a detailed universe structure under L-CDM model.

International collaboration

NAOC took part in a wide range of International collaborations, include

Square Kilometre Array The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an intergovernmental organisation, intergovernmental international radio telescope project being built in Australia (low-frequency) and South Africa (mid-frequency). The combining infrastructure, the Square ...

(SKA),

Thirty Meter Telescope The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a planned extremely large telescope (ELT) proposed to be built on Mauna Kea, on the Hawaii (island), island of Hawai'i. The TMT would become the largest visible-light telescope on Mauna Kea. Scientists hav ...

(TMT),

Herschel Space Observatory The Herschel Space Observatory was a space observatory built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). It was active from 2009 to 2013, and was the largest infrared telescope ever launched until the launch of the James Webb Space Telesco ...

, and Beijing-Arizona Sky Survey (BASS), etc. Meanwhile, several NAOC developing projects are also international collaborated, including FAST. NAOC also started cooperation with futuristic projects like

Einstein Probe The Einstein Probe (EP) is an X-ray space telescope mission by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in partnership with European Space Agency (ESA) and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) dedicated to time-domain high-energy ...

(EP), CSST, etc. In 2023, NAOC signed an agreement with the

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC Chile; ) is a traditional private university based in Santiago, Chile. It is one of the thirteen Catholic universities existing in Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical univ ...

to collaborate on a space observatory in the northern

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...

. The agreement has raised security concerns with the U.S. government.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:National Astronomical Observatory Of China Astronomical observatories in China Organizations established in 2001 Research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 2001 establishments in China