September 2016: Picture of the Month

Nicknamed as Tianyan, or the Eye of Heaven, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is built within a natural basin in the Guizhou province of China. FAST, constructed with 4450 individual triangular-shaped panels, is the largest single dish radio telescope on Earth (its diameter is of course 500 meters). Designed to explore the Universe at radio frequencies, its operations will range from detecting hydrogen gas in the Milky Way and other galaxies, detecting distant pulsar, or even searching for radio signals from extraterrestrials.

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