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Story Times: Spotlight
World’s largest radio telescope
The world’s largest radio telescope has begun searching for signals from stars and galaxies and, perhaps, extraterrestrial life.
Measuring 1,640ft in diameter, the radio telescope is nestled within a stunning landscape of lush green karst formations in southern Guizhou province, China.
The facility took five years and around £140 million to complete, and surpasses the capability of the 985ft Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, a dish used in research on stars which led to a Nobel Prize.
The Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST would search for gravitational waves, detect radio emissions from stars and galaxies and listen for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life.