FAST: Earth's 'ear' pricked to sound from universe

Photo taken on April 10, 2016 shows the single-aperture spherical telescope "FAST" in Pingtang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

A hollow that formed 45 million years ago with the collapse of a karst cave in southwest China's Guizhou Province is now home to the world's largest radio telescope. Scientists say it will become a big sensitive "ear," listening to subtle sounds from distant universes and decoding cosmic messages.

With an investment of 1.2 billion yuan ($182 million), China's largest ever astronautics project began in March 2011 and will be completed in September this year.

Once complete, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, or "FAST," will surpass Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which is 305 meters in diameter.

"Being the world's largest filled-aperture telescope located in an extremely radio-quiet site, its scientific impact on astronomy will be extraordinary, and it will certainly revolutionize other areas of the natural sciences," said Nan Rendong, chief scientist of the FAST Project.