China has launched the world's largest telescope which will be used for space research and will also help Beijing hunt extraterrestrial life, news agency Reuters reported quoting state news agency Xinhua.&nbsp;

The operations of the telescope, which is also known as "Sky Eye", were launched on Saturday. As per reports, the telescope is as big as the size of 30 football fields and was constructed in the year 2016.&nbsp;

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) has been hewed out of a mountain in the southwestern province of Guizhou in China.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/smart-robots-in-the-offing-to-help-mine-the-moon-272277">Smart robots in the offing to help mine the moon</a>

The telescope is one of Beijing's attempts to advance its space programme and catch up with space research pioneers like the United States and Russia. It also plans to launch the construction of its manned space station by next year.

The telescope's trial operations had so far been reliable and stable, FAST's Chief Engineer Jiang Peng told Xinhua, adding that its sensitivity was more than 2.5 times that of the world's second-largest telescope.

The project is expected to lead to breakthroughs in areas such as low-frequency gravitational wave detection and interstellar molecules in years to come and has already obtained some valuable scientific data.

(With inputs from Reuters)&nbsp;

 
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China has launched the world's largest telescope which will be used for space research and will also help Beijing hunt extraterrestrial life, news agency Reuters reported quoting state news agency Xinhua.

China has launched the world's largest telescope which will be used for space research and will also help Beijing hunt extraterrestrial life, news agency Reuters reported quoting state news agency Xinhua. The operations of the telescope, which is also known as "Sky Eye", were launched on Saturday. As per reports, the telescope is as big as the size of 30 football fields and was constructed in the year 2016. The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) has been hewed out of a mountain in the southwestern province of Guizhou in China. Also read: Smart robots in the offing to help mine the moon The telescope is one of Beijing's attempts to advance its space programme and catch up with space research pioneers like the United States and Russia. It also plans to launch the construction of its manned space station by next year. The telescope's trial operations had so far been reliable and stable, FAST's Chief Engineer Jiang Peng told Xinhua, adding that its sensitivity was more than 2.5 times that of the world's second-largest telescope. The project is expected to lead to breakthroughs in areas such as low-frequency gravitational wave detection and interstellar molecules in years to come and has already obtained some valuable scientific data. (With inputs from Reuters)

In a bid to hunt life beyond Earth, China launches world's largest telescope 

China has started operations of the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope after completion of a productive three-year trial. #WION #China

Operations of world's largest radio telescope started

Is there life on planets outside our solar system? How did stars and galaxies form in the earliest years of the universe? How do black holes shape galaxies? Scientists are expected to explore those and other fundamental questions about the universe when they peer deep into the night sky using a new telescope planned for the summit of Hawaii's tallest mountain. But the Thirty Meter Telescope is a decade away from being built. And Native Hawaiian protesters have tried to thwart the start of construction by blocking a road to the mountain. They say installing yet another observatory on Mauna Kea's peak would further defile a place they consider sacred. The large size of the telescope's mirror means it would collect more light, allowing it to see faint, far-away objects such as stars and galaxies dating back as long as 13 billion years. Hundreds of demonstrators are gathered at the base of Hawaii's tallest mountain to protest the construction of a giant telescope on land that some Native Hawaiians consider sacred. Groups of activists sang and prayed at the base of the mountain on Sunday afternoon. They declared the area, which is well off the highway at the intersection of the mountain's access road, a place of refuge and safety.

A plan to build the world's largest telescope, Hawaiians protest it's build