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Review
Deep in the mountains of Guizhou, there is a hidden pearl of modern science and technology - China's Sky Eye. This huge radio telescope not only has an extraordinary appearance, but also carries the endless curiosity and exploration of the universe of human beings.
Every day, it costs 400,000 yuan to operate, but it unveils the mystery of the universe for us and explores the unknown mysteries in the depths of the stars. So, what exactly did this magnificent scientific project, China's Sky Eye, discover?
What is China Sky Eye?
In the deep night sky, our eyes are often fixed on the stars, but there is a miraculous instrument that allows us to peek deeper into the universe. This is the Chinese Sky Eye, a radio telescope that interprets the mysteries of the universe by receiving invisible radio waves in the universe.
There are two ways for humans to peek into the universe:
- One is the well-known variety of starlight that can be seen with the naked eye, which is the most direct way for us to understand the starry sky since ancient times.
- Another method is to observe various radio waves with the help of instruments, and in 1930, the founder of radio astronomy, Karl Jansky, accidentally captured a signal from the center of the Milky Way, which opened the prelude to the rise of radio astronomy.
Since then, human beings have begun to understand the universe through radio waves, which has promoted our in-depth understanding of the origin of the universe and the birth of life.
The Chinese Sky Eye is now the pinnacle of radio astronomy, with a staggering 500-meter aperture, the size of 30 standard football fields. This makes it the largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever built.
Its reflective surface consists of 4,450 deformable metal plates to accommodate different observation directions and frequencies. The feed pod is suspended in the air, supported by 6 steel cables, and can move freely to capture more signals. Covering frequency bands from 300 MHz to 3 GHz, it even covers an area more than 13 billion light-years away, close to the edge of the universe.
China Sky Eye is not only an eye-catching scientific and technological project, but also has outstanding scientific value. It can delve into various astronomical phenomena and problems such as pulsars, fast radio bursts, neutral hydrogen, molecular clouds, galaxies, the Big Bang, and more.
Through this "giant eye", we are expected to reveal the origin, evolution, and structure of the universe, while also delving into uncharted areas such as dark matter, dark energy, and gravitational waves. Even, looking for signals of extraterrestrial civilizations in the vast universe, providing potential navigation information for human interstellar travel.
How to build the eye of the sky?
China's Sky Eye can be described as a miracle of modern engineering. It was not born overnight, but was the result of 22 years of hard work and technical research.
The astronomical facility was designed and built entirely by Chinese scientists and engineers, covering a wide range of disciplines such as astronomy, surveying, control technology, electronics, mechanical engineering, structural design, and creating many world-first technologies and patents.
The Chinese Sky Eye, led by the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was originally conceived by Mr. Nan Rendong, a famous astronomer in mainland China, in 1994 and received active support from relevant national departments.
At the end of 1995, the China Promotion Committee of the Radio "Large Telescope" was established, which opened the road of research and development of the "China Sky Eye".
To create this "eye in the sky", you must first find a suitable depression, which is large enough, round enough, geologically stable, and far away from densely populated areas, and not prone to water accumulation.
Such depressions are difficult to find. Scientists screened out more than 300 craters from more than 8,000 potential sites, and then gradually reduced them to dozens, and finally selected the site of Tianyan in 1998 in the Dawotai depression in Kedu Town, Pingtang County, Guizhou Province.
The Tianyan project was officially established in 2007, and the main project construction was started in 2011, until it was officially completed and put into use on September 25, 2016, and finally passed the national acceptance on January 11, 2020 and began to be officially put into operation.
During this long construction process, scientists and engineers have overcome countless difficulties and challenges to create a number of world-leading technologies.
They have developed a steel cable structure with ultra-high fatigue performance, which realizes a cable net structure with ultra-large span, ultra-high precision and active displacement, designed a lightweight cable drive control system that allows the feed module to move freely and accurately position, and developed a high-performance receiver and data processing system to efficiently collect and analyze cosmic signals.
The construction of China's Tianyan is the collective wisdom of more than 20 scientific research institutions and hundreds of scientific researchers, and it is also the crystallization of the sweat of thousands of front-line workers.
The conditions at the construction site were difficult, and many people had red bumps on their bodies after working there for a few days. The sheds were damp and cold, with no air conditioning or heating, and everyone's quilts were so wet that they could almost squeeze out the water. This is a tenacious and unyielding spirit, and it is this spirit that supports the birth of "Sky Eye".
China's Tianyan not only belongs to China, but also to the world, and it is the common wealth of mankind. Its open-mindedness provides research facilities around the globe and a wider range of observations for the astronomical community.
This giant "eye" is a symbol of China's wisdom, which has contributed to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and is committed to promoting global scientific and technological development and the progress of human civilization.
China's Tianyan has made great contributions
China Sky Eye is not only an engineering miracle, but also a scientific miracle. Since its completion, it has made a series of major scientific discoveries, revealing the mysteries of the universe and expanding new perspectives and methods for interstellar exploration.
A pulsar is a type of star that collapses after the death of a massive star. It is small but extremely dense, spins at a rapid speed, and is accompanied by a strong magnetic field, like a lighthouse, which periodically radiates strong radio waves. Pulsars are important astrophysical laboratories for astronomers to study stellar evolution, the state of matter, and gravitational theory.
The Chinese Sky Eye is currently the most suitable radio telescope for detecting pulsars, and its sensitivity is several times higher than that of other telescopes. It can detect pulsars that are more distant, fainter, and spin faster.
Since its completion, China has discovered more than 370 new pulsars, including some special types such as millisecond pulsars, binary pulsars, and magnetars.
These new findings provide important data and evidence for us to gain insight into the extreme physical environment in the universe, verify the general theory of relativity, and search for gravitational waves.
Fast radio bursts are a mysterious and intense astronomical phenomenon in the universe. It arises suddenly, accompanied by intense bursts of radio waves that last only a few milliseconds to a few seconds, with an energy equivalent to the total amount of radiation from the sun in a year.
This phenomenon may be caused by black holes, neutron stars, supernovae, etc., and its origin and mechanism are still unknown, but it provides important clues for studying the origin, structure and evolution of the universe.
The Chinese Sky Eye is currently the most suitable radio telescope for observing fast radio bursts. Its superior sensitivity and wide spectrum coverage allow it to capture more fast radio burst events.
China's Sky Eye has amassed the largest sample of a fast radio burst event in history, and this is the first time that humanity has mapped the complete energy spectrum of this process and discovered its unique structure. This is of great significance for understanding the physical mechanism and cosmic evolution of fast radio bursts.
Interstellar magnetic fields exist in interstellar space and are generated by celestial bodies such as stars, galaxies, nebulae, etc. It has a crucial impact on the distribution of matter, energy transmission and radiation processes in the universe, and is an important part of the study of the basic components of the universe. However, due to the weak and susceptible interference of other factors, the measurement of its intensity and direction has always been a challenge.
China's Sky Eye is currently the most suitable radio telescope for measuring the interstellar magnetic field. Using the special signal of neutral hydrogen spectral lines, which is produced from the most common element in the universe, hydrogen, China Sky Eye has successfully measured the strength and direction of the interstellar magnetic field for the first time, and has made remarkable progress.
This has important implications for understanding the origin, evolution, and structure of the interstellar magnetic field, as well as its role in other physical processes in the universe.
epilogue
The establishment and operation of China's Sky Eye is the pride of China's scientific community and a valuable contribution to global science. Its discoveries and achievements have not only expanded our understanding of the universe, but also opened up a new path for future scientific exploration and the progress of human civilization.
Therefore, China's Sky Eye not only represents China's scientific and technological ambitions, but also contributes to mankind's unremitting exploration of the mysteries of the universe.
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