Chinese eye of heaven

500 meter spherical radio telescope

synonym

China Tianyan (Guizhou Pingtang spherical radio telescope) generally refers to a 500 meter aperture spherical radio telescope

Five hundred meter aperture spherical Telepope, short for fast, is located in the karst pit of dawodang, Kedu Town, Pingtang County, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province. The project is a major national science and technology infrastructure. The "Tianyan" project consists of active reflector system, feed support system, measurement and control system, receiver and terminal, and observation base

. The 500m spherical radio telescope is known as "China's heavenly eye", which was proposed by Chinese astronomer Mr. Nan Rendong in 1994. It took 22 years to complete and was put into operation on September 25, 2016. Led by the National Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it is the largest single aperture and most sensitive radio telescope in the world with independent intellectual property rights in China. Its comprehensive performance is ten times that of the famous radio telescope Arecibo.

As of August 28, 2019, 132 high-quality pulsar candidates have been found by the 500 meter aperture spherical radio telescope, of which 93 have been confirmed as new pulsars

. On January 11, 2020, the 500 meter spherical radio telescope passed the national acceptance and put into operation

.

Historical evolution

In 1993, at the International Radio Science Union conference held in Tokyo, astronomers from 10 countries including China proposed to build a new generation of radio "large telescope". They expect to harvest more radio signals before the global signal environment deteriorates beyond control. That's where the motivation for building fast started.

In July 1994, the concept of fast engineering was put forward. In this context, the former Beijing Observatory proposed a Chinese plan to build Arecibo LT using karst landforms in Southwest China, initially named karst.

In November 1995, with the Beijing observatory as the main body and more than 20 universities and scientific research institutions in China, the China Promotion Committee for the "large radio telescope" was established, headed by researcher Nan Rendong.

In 2001, as one of the first batch of "major innovation projects" of Chinese Academy of Sciences, fast pre research was supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of science and technology.

In October 2001, the first batch of major projects of knowledge innovation project "fast pre research" were accepted.

In July 2007, the national development and Reform Commission approved the proposal for the establishment of the national major scientific and technological infrastructure for the 500m spherical radio telescope, and agreed in principle to include the fast project in the national high-tech industry development project plan, and the fast project entered the feasibility study stage.

In October 2008, the national development and Reform Commission approved the feasibility study report of the national major science and technology infrastructure project of the 500m spherical radio telescope, and the fast project entered the preliminary design stage.

In February 2009, the preliminary estimate of the national major science and technology infrastructure for the 500m spherical radio telescope was approved by the development and Reform Commission of Guizhou Province.

In March 2011, the fast project start-up report was approved, and the preliminary design and budget estimate of the project start-up were approved by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Guizhou Provincial People's government.

The project was officially started in March 2011 and is expected to be completed in September 2016, with a construction period of 5.5 years. The excavation of the telescope site was completed, and the construction of the base and the active reflector started in 2013. The total investment estimate is 667 million yuan.

On the morning of February 4, 2015, the last cable was installed for the 500 meter spherical radio telescope (fast) in Pingtang, Guizhou Province, and the cable net manufacturing and installation project was completed. This means that the construction of fast's supporting framework has been completed, and it has entered the stage of reflector panel assembly.

On the eve of the national day of 2015, with the 3.5km long 10kv High-voltage Cable passing the withstand voltage test and substation equipment debugging, the integrated wiring project of the 500m aperture spherical radio telescope (fast) project of the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been completed, and the power supply conditions have been met. This marks that the nervous system of the "eye of heaven" has taken shape, and the fast project has entered the final sprint stage.

On November 21, 2015, the feed support system of the 500 meter spherical radio telescope (fast) was installed and constructed in Qiannan, Guizhou Province for the first time. Six steel cables were used to drag the feed cabin to lift 108 meters, and the corresponding functional tests were carried out.

On March 8, 2016, the world's largest single aperture radio telescope, the 500 meter spherical radio telescope (fast), was built in Pingtang County, Guizhou Province. 3492 reflector panels have been installed, accounting for 78.47%. On April 10, 2016, 4185 reflector panels of the 500 meter aperture spherical radio telescope (fast) were installed, accounting for 94.04%.

On June 29, 2016, fast has completed the installation of 4443 reflector panels, accounting for 99.8%.

On July 3, 2016, the last reflector unit of the 500m spherical radio telescope was successfully hoisted, marking the successful completion of the main project of fast.

On September 25, 2016, it was completed and put into operation in the karst depression in Pingtang County, Guizhou Province, and began to receive electromagnetic waves from the deep universe. The "heavenly eye" will become a "silent area" with a radius of 5 km.

In October 2017, two new pulsars were discovered, about 4100 light-years and 16000 light-years away from the earth, respectively. This is the first time that pulsars were discovered by China Radio Telescope.

In December 2017, fast discovered three new pulsars, which have been certified separately

. Since its launch on September 25, 2016, a total of 51 pulsar candidates have been found in China Tianyan, of which 11 have been confirmed as new pulsars.

On April 28, 2018, it was learned from the National Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that the "Tianyan" fast (500 meter aperture spherical radio telescope) discovered millisecond pulsars for the first time and obtained international certification. The newly discovered pulsar j0318 + 0253 has an rotation period of 5.19 MS and is estimated to be about 4000 light-years away from the earth according to the dispersion. It was discovered by fast using ultra wideband receiver for one hour tracking observation. It is one of the weakest high-energy millisecond pulsars with radio flow discovered so far.

On July 12, 2018, according to the Guizhou science and technology award conference, 43 pulsars have been discovered by the 500 meter spherical radio telescope.

In 2018, "China Tianyan" installed and debugged a back-end device dedicated to the search of extraterrestrial civilization. This function is a bit like the back-end device of a sieve. It is mainly to screen out useful narrow-band candidate signals from the vast electromagnetic signals of the "Chinese sky eye" and exclude celestial and artificial signals. Based on decades of experience in searching for extraterrestrial civilization, the research team of the University of California, Berkeley, together with the National Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed this set of special equipment for the "Chinese heavenly eye".

In March 2019, Jiang Peng, chief engineer and researcher of fast at the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an exclusive interview that in cooperation with the team of Tianma telescope, joint observation was successfully realized for the first time, which indicates that fast has the ability of joint network observation.

As of September 12, 2018, 59 high-quality pulsar candidates have been found by the 500 meter aperture spherical radio telescope, of which 44 have been confirmed as new pulsars.

As of August 28, 2019, the 500 meter aperture spherical radio telescope has been put into operation for nearly three years. It has realized tracking, drift scanning, scanning in motion and other observation modes, and has found 132 high-quality pulsar candidates, of which 93 have been confirmed as new pulsars.

On January 11, 2020, the 500m spherical radio telescope passed the national acceptance and put into operation. In the future, efforts will be made to ensure the efficient, stable and reliable operation of the device and strengthen the opening and sharing at home and abroad.

From January 1 to March 23, 2020, the 500 meter spherical radio telescope has completed nearly 1000 hours of observation, one third of the annual observation time target task has been completed, and 114 pulsars have been discovered and certified.

In September 2020, "China's heavenly eye" is expected to officially launch the search for extraterrestrial civilization

.

Cable net structure

Cable net structure is the main support structure of fast active reflector and the key point of active deflection of reflector. The fabrication and installation of cable net is also one of the main technical difficulties in the project of 500m spherical radio telescope. The key technical problems include: installation scheme design of super long span cable net, development of ultra-high fatigue performance steel cable structure, manufacturing process of ultra-high precision cable structure, etc. The successful completion of cable net project means fast project

Chinese PinYin : Zhong Guo Tian Yan