Not long after the two talked, another explosive news came out on the Internet!

News Title: Exploring China's "Sky Eye"

Source: Xinhuanet Author: Yu Xiaojie, Qi Jian, Zhou Runjian 2016-09-26 10:46

On the 23rd, the first batch of 1,000 units of the reflector unit panel, an important equipment for the world's largest single-aperture spherical radio telescope built by China, were "in place" and began to be assembled on site in Qiannan, Guizhou Province. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Guiyang, July 23 (Reporter Yu Xiaojie, Qi Jian, Zhou Runjian) On the 23rd, the first batch of 1,000 units of the reflective surface unit panel, an important equipment for the world's largest single-aperture spherical radio telescope built by China, were "in place" and began to be assembled on site in Qiannan, Guizhou Province.

This super telescope, known as China's "eye in the sky", has a single-aperture of 500 meters and a receiving area equivalent to nearly 30 football fields. Why is China's "Sky Eye" located in Qiannan? What does it look like? What are the "skills"? Can it find "aliens"? Let's take a closer look at the Super Radio Telescope (FAST).

Tens of billions of light-years away

The radio telescope is not an ordinary telescope observed by the naked eye, it is the world's top space telescope.

Radio is an electromagnetic band with a lower frequency than infrared. Radio telescopes, similar to the antenna pan that receives satellite signals, focus on the reflection of the pot and gather signals from a few square meters to several thousand square meters into a single point.

"The cosmic space is mixed with all kinds of radiation, and distant signals are like cicadas in thunder, and without super sensitive 'ears', they can't be distinguished at all." Nan Rendong, chief scientist and chief engineer of the FAST project at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said.

For more than half a century, all radio telescopes have collected more than a page of energy.

To obtain farther and weaker radio and to "read" information into the depths of the universe, larger aperture radio telescopes are needed. In short, the larger the "pot", the farther the interstellar will be.

Experts note that FAST is about 10 times more sensitive compared to the 100-meter telescope in Bonn, Germany. This means that radio signals that are tens of billions of light-years away may also be "captured" by FAST.

China's "eye in the sky" and "eye socket" are deep

Open the satellite map, the landscape of Pingtang County, Guizhou Province, looks like a wrinkled elephant skin. If you increase the resolution, you can see the large and small "funnels" - "sinkhole" groups. One of them is the "home" that scientists have been searching for for ten years to find for the largest telescope.

Astronomers are thinking about how to use natural depressions as scaffolds to build giant radio telescopes.

In 1993, astronomers from 10 countries, including China, proposed to build a new generation of radio "large telescopes", aiming to go back to the original universe and solve many difficult problems in astronomy. At the end of 1995, the China Promotion Committee of the Radio "Large Telescope" proposed the concept of "karst engineering" to use the karst depression in Guizhou to build a spherical reflective surface.

Since then, scientists, with the help of local residents, have trekked through mountains and rivers to survey and select sites. After repeated screening, I finally found the "big nest" in Kedu Town, Pingtang County, which is the most suitable for the deep "eye socket" of the huge "heavenly eye".

Attracted by the "eye of the sky", Xinhua News Agency reporters went deep into Qiannan to "explore" the progress of the FAST project.

Sun Caihong, chief engineer of the feed support system of the FAST project, told reporters that there are three reasons for the location of "Dawotai", one is that the landform is closest to the shape of FAST, and the amount of excavation is the smallest; Second, the karst geology here can ensure that rainwater penetrates into the ground and will not be silted on the surface and damage and corrode the telescope; Third, the radio telescope needs a "quiet land", and there is not a single township within a 5-kilometer radius of the "Dawotai", and the radio environment is ideal.

"The three peaks around FAST are in a three-legged trend, each with a distance of about 500 meters, and the depression in the middle is like a natural pot rack, just holding the 'cauldron' of FAST." Sun Caihong said.

The "Transfiguring Cauldron" moves with the sky

When you come to "Tai Wo Tai", you will find that the reflective surface with a total area of 250,000 square meters looks like a super "cauldron". With a total length of more than 1.5 kilometers, tens of thousands of steel cables are firmly fixed. To get a full view of the FAST project, you have to climb to the top of a nearby mountain. The observation deck that is being built there is a place where visitors will be able to watch FAST in the future.

Sun Caihong said that the reflective surface unit panel will be fixed on tens of thousands of steel cables, and after the installation is completed, the entire reflective surface is actually suspended in mid-air, and there is a spiral highway that has been leading to the bottom of the "Tai" for vehicles and personnel to maintain equipment when passing. The gap between the reflective surface and the ground will be restored to vegetation in the future to protect the environment.

This 500-meter-diameter large "pot" is a veritable "transformative gold pot".

"The 'Transfiguration Cauldron' moves. The structure of the FAST cable net can automatically change with the movement of the object, driving the 4,450 reflective panels active on the cable net to change, which is enough to observe the object in any direction, and at the same time, the feed module also moves with the cable net to collect feedback information. Zheng Yuanpeng, chief engineer of panel unit technology and senior engineer of China Electronics Researcher, said.

FAST is able to gather signals collected in a receiving area the size of nearly 30 football fields in a space the size of a pill.

Is it possible to see "aliens"?

The progress of the FAST project has touched the "nerves" of astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts.

Wu Xiangping, chairman of the Chinese Astronomical Society and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that China has not occupied a very cutting-edge position in the world in terms of astronomical observation for a long time. If you don't accumulate observation data, you always use other people's "second-hand things", and even if you do research, it is difficult to shine. After the completion of FAST, it will make up for China's shortcomings in the field of observation.

Wu Xiangping believes that FAST is very suitable for pulsar observation and can test the general theory of relativity. In addition, it is also very meaningful for the examination of high-energy physics, extreme physics, and relativity.

In the view of astronomical expert Zhao Zhiheng, after the completion of FAST, it will be able to receive radio waves from the depths of the universe, and there will be a series of new discoveries, thus making a big step forward for China in the level of astronomical research to the world's advanced ranks.

FAST is so sensitive, can it receive extremely faint signals from "aliens" sent from distant worlds, and even find "aliens"?

"FAST can see far away from the present day of the universe, which can help unravel the mystery of the origin of the universe, and even 'extraterrestrial civilizations'." Wu Xiangping said.

Zhao Zhiheng believes that the observation of radio bands has promoted the understanding of the universe by earthlings, such as the four major discoveries in the 60s of the 20th century: cosmic microwave background radiation, quasars, pulsars and interstellar organic molecules. There are still many mysteries in modern astronomy about "two dark and one dark" (i.e., dark matter, dark energy, and black holes). FAST picks up and amplifies the faint signals they send, helping to unravel these mysteries.

Shi Zhicheng, a member of the Chinese Astronomical Society and a director of the Tianjin Astronomical Society, said that FAST is a scientific equipment with independent intellectual property rights in China, and will maintain a leading level for similar equipment in the world for more than 20 years. It will detect distant signals and matter in the universe, such as electromagnetic waves, microwaves, lasers, radiation information of various gases, organic matter, interstellar matter, stars, etc. in the universe. It will make more precise observations of pulsars, quasars and other faint radiation sources, and conduct in-depth exploration of their material structure and production mechanism, which is expected to contribute to the understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe.

"If there are life forms or high-IQ 'aliens' in the universe, the information they produce and leave behind may also be detected and received by FAST if they exist in the vast universe." Shi Zhicheng said. (To be continued.) )