Syllabus section: science and tech

Why in News?

Following the collapse of the historic Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, China has opened the biggest radio telescope in the world up to international scientists.With this, China recently announced that it is open its world largest Five Hundred Metre Aperture Spherical Telescope to international scientists.

About:

• It is a radio telescope located in the Dawodang depression.

• It is the world's largest filled-aperture radio telescope and the second-largest single-dish aperture, after the sparsely-filled RATAN-600 in Russia.

• The telescope has a reflecting surface of 500-metres in diameter. However, only a circle of 300 metres diameter can be used at one time.

• It is located in a natural sinkhole. A sinkhole is formed due to erosion.

• It has super sensitivity to detect cosmic phenomena. This includes radio bursts and pulsars as well.

• It is also known as the “Eye of Heaven” or Tianyan.

Science mission

• Large scale neutral hydrogen survey

• Pulsar observations

• Leading the international very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) network

• Detection of interstellar molecules

• Detecting interstellar communication signals (Search for extraterrestrial intelligence)

• Pulsar timing arrays

 

Source: Space.com