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Space China Science Technology

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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China Finishes Building Its Alien-Hunting Telescope

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    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?

    • "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.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Maritz ( 1829006 )
        Capitalism in a nutshell. Don't buy the cheapest. Buy something more expensive, but benefits someone that you like. Because it's always really easy to tell where the money is going.
        • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

          by hyades1 ( 1149581 )

          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.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      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.

    • by Coisiche ( 2000870 ) on Monday July 04, 2016 @10:46AM (#52443003)

      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.

    • by hackingbear ( 988354 ) on Monday July 04, 2016 @12:30PM (#52443545)

      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.

    • "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.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    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).

  • Well, will the next Bond movie be shot there?

    Say it, you were thinking it too.

    • by VAXcat ( 674775 )
      This could be a great idea - the Chinese make contact and start dealing with extraterrestrials. It could be the first James Bond science fiction movie - he's never tangled with space aliens before.
  • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) * on Monday July 04, 2016 @09:39AM (#52442691)
    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. The real reason, however, is they want to be the first to find out if ground up alien pseudo-pods increase your libido and if alien tastes better than cat.
    • 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!!!

  • More of this and less censorship.

    Regards,
    The rest of the world


    • 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.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 04, 2016 @10:40AM (#52442959)

    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.

  • Now the Chinese are wasting money on foolish projects.
  • My understand of radio telescopes is that they can not detect gravitational waves. They detect radio waves, hence the name. This can be used in conjunction with LIGO, which, as far as I know, is the only telescope to ever detect gravitational waves. Some of the phenomena that this new radio telescope will look at should produce gravitational waves, but those waves are not detected by the telescope.
  • by Idarubicin ( 579475 ) on Monday July 04, 2016 @12:51PM (#52443641) Journal

    "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?

    • by phorm ( 591458 )

      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.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    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.

  • I genuinely believe that we are not alone in the Universe. None of us can’t be sure that our race is the one and only. I support space exploration. But does people really need such constructions? I think it would be better off spending such sum of money to help our planet. I’m not a charity fan, but I like put money to good use.
  • The world's most populated nation

    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.

"The pathology is to want control, not that you ever get it, because of course you never do." -- Gregory Bateson

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