China Finishes Building Its Alien-Hunting Telescope 64
Work has finished on the world's largest radio telescope, which will hunt for extraterrestrial life and explore space, reports Chinese news agency Xinhua. The world's most populated nation fitted the final of 4,450 panels into the centre of the 500m-wide Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, over the weekend. The telescope, which cost $180 million -- and took five years to build -- will be switched on from September. Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astronomical Observation under the Chinese Academy Sciences said:The project has the potential to search for more strange objects to better understand the origin of the universe and boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life.Gizmodo adds:FAST is almost twice as large as the next biggest radio telescope, which is in Puerto Rico. It will be used for early-stage research by Chinese scientists for a couple years, and then be used more widely. FAST is capable of detecting gravitational waves, pulsars and, eventually, amino acids on other planets.
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the aliens have a message for China (Score:2)
they have erected a giant sign... FREE WI-FI... LIKE, REALLY FREE and are just waiting for the senior leadership to swallow their tongues and keel over
What if the Chinese make First Contact? (Score:1, Funny)
It has long been assumed that when First Contact were to happen, it would involve representatives of the American government involved, speaking on behalf of the entire planet.
But what if it were actually the Chinese who made First Contact? What if the aliens end up being forced to work in factories, making shoes up to 18 hours a day?
Re:What if the Chinese make First Contact? (Score:4, Insightful)
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"What if the aliens end up being forced to work in factories, making shoes up to 18 hours a day?"
No doubt the aliens will appreciate knowing the fruits of their labour will be sold in Walmart to people who would rather save a couple of bucks than pay a little more and help provide a job for a fellow American.
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Are you really so simple-minded you don't understand how having others in your community who are employed and paying taxes actually benefits you more than having them out of work and consuming your tax dollars?
And yes, in cases Walmart, it actually is really easy to tell where the money is going.
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Why do you think we would want the country that consumes the most resources, produces the most waste, is on the sharpest decline of awareness of the surrounding world, waging the most wars and conducts the most espionage on other countries, while subjecting its population to monitoring and surveillance and treats them all as potential enemies, to represent and speak on behalf of the entire planet should a first contact be established? Only an American would think that makes sense.
Re:What if the Chinese make First Contact? (Score:4, Insightful)
It has long been assumed that when First Contact were to happen, it would involve representatives of the American government
You mean it has long been portrayed in English speaking movies that are invariably made in the USA.
Re:What if the Chinese make First Contact? (Score:5, Funny)
But what if it were actually the Chinese who made First Contact? What if the aliens end up being forced to work in factories, making shoes up to 18 hours a day?
Then the American government will cite it as another evidence in its annual Human Right Report and promptly deport those aliens to Mexico.
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"What if the aliens end up being forced to work in factories, making shoes up to 18 hours a day?"
Perhaps the aliens have been programmed to love being slaves, and they will be transported to religious ecstasy by the knowledge that the fruits of their labour will be sold in Walmart to people who would rather save a couple of bucks than pay an extra dollar or two to provide a jobs for their fellow Americans.
It's called "Arecibo" (Score:1)
What's with the vague "the next biggest radio telescope, which is in Puerto Rico"? I would expect most people on Slashdot would know it's called Arecibo Observatory, and recognise it from Contact (or GoldenEye).
Re:It's called "Arecibo" (Score:4, Insightful)
There isn't really anything gained by the more specific term. Those in the know will already understand that the reference is to Arecibo, and those who do not know will have one less thing to Google.
Bond, James Bond.... (Score:2)
Well, will the next Bond movie be shot there?
Say it, you were thinking it too.
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No aliens, but what about Moonraker? If that's not Bond-science-fiction, I don't know what is.
EVERY Bond movie is science-fiction. (Score:2)
It's just that the general public doesn't realize that "cigarette lighter laser with enough stored energy to burn through armor" is perhaps more farfetched than "alien invaders".
Nefarious reasons (Score:5, Funny)
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racist
Racist? So it's a fabrication that "traditional Chinese medicine" uses a lot of weird shit to make impossible claims? Is it completely untrue that many Chinese still eat animals people in the West might consider pets? These are all fabrications? LIGHTEN UP A LITTLE. Or go hide in your safe space.
Re:Nefarious reasons (Score:5, Insightful)
So it's a fabrication that "traditional Chinese medicine" uses a lot of weird shit to make impossible claims?
Its a global issue. In the USA, you have people who think the earth was created six thousand years ago, and evolution is wrong. Would you want them to make contact?
Is it completely untrue that many Chinese still eat animals people in the West might consider pets?
Yes, just as many westerners still eat animals that people in India might consider to be sacred cows. Also, we poison animals that people in India think to be holy as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Its just a cultural thing.
In fact, all the science fiction movies/books have some US agency dissecting the aliens. Its not the chinese who dissect (or eat) them, its the some branch of the US Government.
Living in a western country, I would obviously prefer that the USA made first contact rather than china, but that still doesn't mean that china will do a horrible job at it, or would first eat the aliens or something.
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I think that would be a good idea. I've never seen someone's head explode, without duct-taping a hand grenade into their mouth first. But this way - I might.
Hey, if you're going to do vivisection, what's the point in using anaesthetics an
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Of course you'd like to think the Chinese wish to be the first to contact aliens to ensure that a cultured, civilized race be the first to make contact.
There may be other reasons... Guys, if you make contact
DO NOT ANSWER! DO NOT ANSWER!! DO NOT ANSWER!!!
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If they continue on their current trajectory, they will indeed be a super-power. Whether they remain peaceful is anyone's guess.
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If they continue on their current trajectory, they will indeed be a super-power. Whether they remain peaceful is anyone's guess.
Has the US remained peaceful after WW2 ? There is your answer. Superpower China will assert itself, maybe not on the world stage but in its backyard it's a given. American consent or not, Southeast Asia will dance to the Chinese tune sooner or later.
Dear China (Score:2)
More of this and less censorship.
Regards,
The rest of the world
Re:Dear China [censorship] (Score:2)
Dear Earth,
A hearty welcome from the Zircoids. We are happy to find out that Earth has [censored] and [censored]. This shows that at least some of the people of Earth are [censored]. Please avoid [censored], it has caused terrible problems for other civilizations. We hope to contact you again at [censored].
Thank You,
The Zircoids.
also, NSF is de-funding Arecebo (Score:5, Interesting)
Not only is the Chinese facility twice as large, but the Arecibo telescope's funding is going away. [pbs.org] and the NSF is desperately looking for someone to take it over. The NSF's funding has been flat for quite a while, but their expenses are going up and they need to trim programs.
This is all nicely metaphorical of China's rise as the world's major superpower, and the decline of the US. China is pouring huge funding into science and technology, and the US is cutting programs and shutting down major facilities.
Oh, good. (Score:2)
Gravitational Wave Detection? (Score:1)
"Alien-hunting telescope"? Really, guys? (Score:5, Interesting)
"Alien-hunting telescope"? Really, guys?
A large-scale pure-science project. A tool that will advance modern astrophysical and astronomical research. A landmark technical achievement.
But it came from funny-looking furriners (not just funny-talking, like them ones from Yurp). So we must be sure to cast the headline in the most derisive terms possible. It's not a research tool that shoestring SETI projects will be able to snag a bit of time on--no, it's an "alien-hunting telescope".
I mean, my God--snippets of Aricebo's time have been used for alien-hunting (and alien-spamming) for decades. It was used to send publicity stunt messages to M13 in 1974, and to some nearer stars in 2009. SETI@home users have been crunching Aricebo data looking for little green men since 1999. And yet, oddly enough, no one ever seems to refer to Aricebo as an "alien-hunting telescope". Why is that?
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I don't see anything particularly wrong about the search for extraterrestrial (alien) life. I think the contrast would be that locally some of the religo-nuts would strongly object if that were the primary purpose of such a large and expensive instrument.
Radio Telescopes are a dual use technology (Score:1)
Terrestrial aeronomy experiments at Arecibo have included the Coqui 2 experiment, supported by NASA. The telescope also has military intelligence uses, some of which include locating Soviet radar installations by detecting their signals bouncing off the Moon.
Tell me why (Score:1)
Got to count carefully (Score:2)
Since China is less than 100 thousand people more populous than India, you're going to have to start checking statements like this every time you make them.