China has kicked off of a second phase of construction to enhance the capabilities of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST).
- It is being dubbed as the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope.
- FAST is situated in a karst region in Guizhou, southwest China. It has been operating since January 2020. But now a second phase will add 24 new moveable radio telescopes, each with a diameter of 131 feet (40 meters).
- Construction officially started on September 25, on the eighth anniversary of FAST’s completion.
- This expansion, named the FAST Core Array, aims to make use of the quiet electromagnetic environment that exists within a 3-mile (5 kilometers) radius around the telescope.
- When combined into an array, the new telescopes will enhance resolution and detection capabilities.
- The plan aims to allow scientists deeper investigations into various fields, including gravitational wave events, fast radio bursts, supernovae and black hole tidal disruption events.
