China brings the Skyeye telescope to the global scientific community |
According to a Global Times report, China plans to open a 500-meter Sky-Spherical Wireless Telescope to the global scientific community from April 1.
The Sky Eye satellite dish is the world's largest ball-aperture radio telescope.
The celestial eye is used to find pulsars and other astronomical targets, and sometimes to search for civilizations beyond Earth.
According to Xinhua News Agency, foreign scientists can submit their applications online to the China National Astronomical Observatory.
According to the chief engineer at Sky Eye, the observation time after the survey was set on August 1, and this year about 10% of the observation time was devoted to the world's astronomers.
The project was completed in 2016 and the telescope officially went into operation on January 11, 2020. However, the observation work began earlier. So far in November he's filmed 240 pulsars.
One of the most important pulsars has been discovered in the Messier 92 star cluster. It is known as the millisecond pulsar because it rotates much faster than traditional pulsars at 316.5 revolutions per second (18,990 revolutions per minute). It absorbs and releases its companion star substance.
According to the report, its reflective surface is about 30 standard football fields and is large enough to hold enough water to fill the bottle four times per person.
The size of the telescope means it can intercept signals that other radio telescopes have missed, including radio waves emitted by the two aliens.
The Chinese Skyeye Telescope is the largest single-map spherical radio telescope in the world and the only telescope that can make certain types of observations (such as observing cosmic waves).
After the 305-meter-wide Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico collapsed due to a hurricane and was not properly maintained, China is now the only country in the world to use a gigantic telescope.
The National Science Foundation said it would destroy the Arecibo telescope, but after Puerto Rico pledged $ 8 million, there was a positive side to rebuilding it.
In recent years, political tensions between the two countries have undermined scientific cooperation between China and the West, particularly the United States. Some Chinese astronomers hope the telescope will become a new platform for international cooperation.