China has begun construction of a new steerable radio telescope. Its antenna will have a diameter of 120 meters, making it the largest such structure on Earth.
The location of the new radio telescope will be the Chinese province of Jilin. Workers have started pouring its foundation. It will have a mirror with a diameter of 120 meters, which will give it the potential to surpass the German Effelsberg Radio Telescope and the U.S. Green Bank Observatory in size.
The main objectives of the Jilin Radio Telescope will be the study of planets and asteroids. The full-rotation design will allow it to track objects anywhere in the sky above the horizon at any time of day. This is an important advantage over static radio telescopes such as the same Chinese FAST, which has a diameter of up to 500 meters but is limited in pointing at objects due to its stationary design.
The new radio telescope will be able to accurately measure the distance to various celestial bodies, as well as to conduct radar location of objects approaching the Earth, which will make it possible to obtain their detailed portraits. This will help astronomers close the gap left by the destruction in 2020 of the Arecibo radio telescope, once the best instrument on Earth for radar research.
The Jilin radio telescope is scheduled to be operational in 2028. It’s worth noting that China is currently building other, smaller radio telescopes in places like Tibet and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Provided by theregister.com
