The Chinese have built the most modern radio telescope, and we for a large sum can not finish “Zenit-Arena”
<sup>”all Seeing eye”. Photo: Reuters</sup>
September 25, China launched the largest radio telescope in the world FAST with a reflex mirror with a diameter of 500 m. FAST (in Chinese it’s called “Tinjan”, that is, predictable, the “Eye of heaven”) is a gigantic mirror built in a natural karst depression in Guizhou province, in the district Bintan, South-West China.
Diameter FAST on a 64% larger than the diameter of the American radio telescope in Arecibo. It is second in size only to the Russian radio telescope RATAN-600 in the village of Zelenchuk in Karachay-Cherkessia with a diameter of 600 m.
Of course, it is good news that the RATAN-600 is still more, but first, RATAN built in 1974, and secondly, the Rattan mirror is not solid. It’s not a plate like Arecibo or FAST, it is, as in the Pulkovo Observatory, a circular reflector. That is, very roughly speaking, in the RATAN radio waves are not reflected from the saucer, and from the fence.
In addition, FAST has an active surface. This means that the entire huge surface of the plate is controlled by a computer, which in real time adjusts the position of the panels. The fact that large — more than 10 m diameter telescopes — just weigh too much and therefore lose their shape during operation. The deflection is negligible — it is millimeters, and does not really affect the efficiency of the radio telescope for low frequencies, but it becomes noticeable at high frequencies when the wavelength is comparable to the size of the displacement.
The active surface is a set of plates, which the computer drives so that they retain the optimal shape, compensating for not only the predictable effects of gravity, but also the distortions associated with heating or cooling plates, with the force of the wind.
In this sense, nothing like FAST neither in the US nor in Europe. There are in the United States the Green Bank telescope, built in 2000, but its active surface has a diameter of 60 m. There is a Large Millimeter Telescope, built in Mexico with the participation of the United States for $ 130 million. He started to operate in 2011 and has a diameter of 50 m. In 2011, the Italians launched the Sardinia Radio Telescope with a diameter of 64 m and a cost of 70 million euros, and in Sicily the Italians have Noto Radio Observatory with a mirror diameter of 32 m.
That is, the diameter of the active surface 500 m and the diameter of the active surface 60 m. Compare.
There are several circumstances that you should pay attention.
First, FAST is 180 million. that is, slightly more the amount found in cash in the apartment of Colonel Zakharchenko. For the money Zakharchenko (cash plus accounts) we could build two “Eye of heaven”, if I were China.
Second, the construction of FAST started in 2011, and after five years it was launched. For comparison: the stadium “Zenit arena” in St. Petersburg was founded in 2007 and has not built so far. The construction cost is 1.4 billion dollars. Compare the complexity of the construction of the stadium construction which has no analogues in the world the giant scientific facility.
Third, FAST is not everything. “Eye of heaven” — this is just a trial balloon. In addition to “Eyes in the sky” the Chinese are planning to build KARST (Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope) — giant network of radio telescopes located in karst failures Pintana, with a total area of the mirrors 1 sq. km. They are going to build 30 mirrors, each with an area of about 200 m.
Fourth, despite the fact that the creation of KARST will put the Chinese out of competition in the world of radio astronomy, Chinese are also involved in the project Square Kilometre Array (SKA) — the construction of another network multiracialism that will work in Australia and South Africa. Why? Because in the southern hemisphere the best views of our galaxy and less interference.
SKA is a huge project, whose first phase is estimated at 650 million euros. Except Australia, New Zealand and South Africa participate in Italy, Germany, India, Canada, China and, of course, Russia is not involved.
Instead of having to throw 50 billion dollars. at the Olympic facilities in Sochi for one-fiftieth of that amount we could fully Fund the first part of the SKA.
SKA in turn, technologically linked with another project which is now building in Europe. It is LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) is a new radio telescope network that will use about 20 thousand antennas in 48 stations. The main thing to LOFAR is not the antenna, and software.
The main idea of LOFAR is that the electronic signals from the antennas are digitized, entered into a supercomputer and using the software, are transformed into the signals from the virtual supernanny. Forty antennas are located in the Netherlands, five in Germany and one in the UK, France and Sweden.
In other words, the LOFAR — telescope is the computer era and the Internet telescope network telescope program, which is the main component of the cost of electronics falling in accordance with Moore’s law, and the main problem — the data that makes up the gigabits per second. In addition, LOFAR is an open system to which anyone can join.
Costa LOFAR are pretty low — if Ireland, for example, join the system, the hardware and software would cost as much as $ 1.5 million. Is the price of a couple of “Porsche Panamera”, which rides on the Moscow Golden youth, and less than we had the day of the war in Syria to the bombing of Aleppo. As you know, in Russia no one was smart enough to join LOFAR.
In China understand that a modern country great not the bombing. It makes a great economy. And science. And radio telescopes.
Do you know how to call Russia in China? “Slowly sinking ship”.
Author:Yulia Latynina
