China's world's largest radio telescope Tianyan or Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) has started its operation, up and running.

FAST has a 500-meter diameter dish and its total surface area is approximately equal to 30 soccer fields or around 2000,000 square meters, and with that measurement, it is now the largest filled-in, single-dish radio telescope in the world. Its spherical surface uses actuators to push and pull on the corners of "a 300-m-wide subset of the individual panels to attain a near-paraboloidal shape" to achieve this focus.

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The largest telescope is located in southwestern China in the thinly-populated Guizhou Province. It was built inside a natural depression in the limestone-dominated terrain in 2011. In addition, it employs mountainous karst features surrounding the observatory to block out radio interference.

To develop a zone free from any radio interference, the country relocated the 9,110 residents in the surrounding area while building the telescope, according to The Space Reporter. 

“Once completed, FAST will lead the world for at least 10 to 20 years,” National Astronomical Observatories of China director general and telescope designer Yan Jun said in statement.

FAST will be studying gravitational waves, pulsars, dark matter, and fast radio bursts, Sky & Telescope reported.

It is expected that FAST will be the largest and most advanced radio telescope in the world that can last for 10 to 20 years. Before launching FAST, it has detected electromagnetic waves produced by a pulsar over 1,300 light-years away during its test run. 

The telescope will use the Next Generation Archive System (NGAS) as well, which is developed by the International Center for Radio Astronomy (ICRAR) in Perth, Australia. It will also employ the European Southern Observatory to store and maintain the large amount of data it is expected to collect.

China considers FAST as a country’s progress, making it an ambitious military-run and multi-billion-dollar space program. It represents the country’s astronomical capabilities and will be tagged as one of the “world-class” telescope projects launched in the next decade.

At present, China is planning to put a permanent orbiting space station by 2020 and eventually a manned mission to the moon.

Tagschina, World's largest radio telescope, China FAST, Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, Mars mission, astronomical capabilities, Radio Telescope