Astronomy: The world's largest mobile radio telescope is to be built in China
The world's largest radio telescope is already in China, and now the People's Republic also wants to build the largest mobile radio dish. There are no details.
The largest mobile radio telescope is currently located in the USA
(Image: NRAO/AUI/NSF)
The world's largest fully mobile radio telescope is being built in China. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has announced that the observatory's dish will have a diameter of 120 meters. That would be 10 meters more than the previous record holder, the Robert-C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in Green Bank in the US state of West Virginia, and 20 meters more than the Effelsberg radio telescope near Bad MĂĽnstereifel. The Chinese telescope is to be erected near the city of Huadian in the north-eastern Chinese province of Jilin. The site was selected in May and initial preparatory work has already begun.
China builds and builds
With this project, the People's Republic is once again proving that it has long been a leader in astronomy. The world's largest radio telescope has been in operation in China for eight years: the FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope – nicknamed "Sky Eye") is nestled in a valley in the south-western Chinese province of Guizhou. Twenty-four mobile radio telescopes, each with a diameter of 40 meters, are now being installed there to complement the facility. According to the academy, such smaller, also fully mobile radio antennas are also being set up at several other locations throughout the country.
Videos by heise
The new, fully mobile radio telescope in Jilin will be used to study planets and asteroids, for example. Those responsible point out that it can not only receive signals, but also transmit them. This enables it to precisely measure the distance to other celestial bodies. Fully mobile radio antennas have the advantage that they can focus on a larger part of the sky and do not have to wait for an interesting object to move into the covered area. Nevertheless, it is clear that certain limits have been reached with such devices: After its opening in 1971, the "Effelsberg Radio Dish" was the largest in the world for 29 years, and the one in Green Bank has also been in first place for 24 years.
(mho)
