China is reaching the final stages of constructing the world’s biggest and most delicate radio telescope. The government-owned China Central Television has unrestricted drone footage presenting their development, as well as the vertigo-inducing magnitude of it.
The 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is being constructed deep in the hazy mountains of Pingtang County, positioned in the Guizhou Province of southwest China. Assembly has been going on since 2011. When completed in 2016, the FAST will come to be the biggest radio telescope on the planet – at 500 meters (1,640 feet) in diameter, its dish will trump Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 meters (984 feet) wide.
Wu Xiangping, the director-general of the Chinese Astronomical Society, said to Xinhua News, "Having a more sensitive telescope, we can receive weaker and more distant radio messages. It will help us to search for intelligent life outside of the galaxy and explore the origins of the universe."
China will have to foot an similarly massive bill for this project, with assessments suggesting it will cost around 700 million yuan ($110,328,309).
