China remains on track to inaugurate FAST (the Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope) in September following reports that only seven panels out of the 4,600 triangular panels in its main mirror remain to be installed as of June 29.

Located at Guizhou Province, FAST is the world's most modern radio telescope and the second largest radio telescope in the world after the RATAN-600 in Zelenchukskaya, Russia that has been operational since 1974.

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The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said debugging FAST's equipment will follow the complete installation of all the panels. Debugging will also include testing two database centers and a temporary control center. The two database centers can store data collected by the telescope for a year.

The database has a data processing capability equal to 100 home computers and a storage capacity of 1.6 petabytes, some 1,000 times the storage capacity of a home computer, said Yue Youling, an associate researcher at CASS.

When it starts operations in September, FAST will search for extraterrestrial life and monitor China's space program. It will also be used by Chinese scientists to uncover new secrets of physics and dark matter. FAST cost over $180 million to build.

FAST's main mirror, which has a diameter of 500 meters, will consist of 4,600 triangular panels. It is similar in design to the Arecibo Observatory telescope. Locating the telescope dish in a natural hollow provides stronger support for the dish.

Locating FAST three miles away from the nearest inhabited town will give the radio telescope the perfect radio silence needed to do its job better. Pingtang County officials relocated some 9,000 persons to make way for the construction of the radio telescope.

FAST is built into a natural hollow or karst in Pingtang County. 

TagsFast and Furious, Five hundred meter aperture spherical telescope, Radio Telescope, Guizhou Province, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences