China Launches Twin 40-Meter Telescopes for Deep Space Exploration
Shanghai, Dec 27 (ANTARA/Xinhua) – China has switched on two state-of-the-art radio telescopes, each featuring 40-meter diameter antennas. One is positioned in northeastern China, and the other in southwestern China, marking a significant advancement in the country’s space exploration capabilities.
The dual telescopes, inaugurated on Friday, are part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences“>Shanghai Astronomical Observatory‘s (SHAO) Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) network, which now encompasses a control center in Shanghai and six stations across the country. The observatory is under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
VLBI technology enables precise imaging and positioning of cosmic objects, offering unparalleled resolution and positional accuracy. Unlike traditional techniques, VLBI integrates signals from multiple telescopes to create a virtual telescope, with a size equivalent to the maximum distance between them.
With the addition of the new telescopes, China’s VLBI network has expanded its maximum baseline from approximately 3,200 kilometers to 3,800 kilometers. This enhances the observable sky coverage by 25 percent and boosts X-band resolution by 18 percent, according to SHAO Director Shen Zhiqiang.
The enhanced network will support future lunar and deep space exploration missions, providing high-precision orbital and positional information. It has already supported Chinese lunar missions, from Chang’e-1 to Chang’e-6, and the Mars mission Tianwen-1.
CAS Vice President Ding Chibiao stressed the importance of such infrastructure in driving innovation and called for enhanced cooperation and sharing of such facilities.
Academician Ye Shuhua noted the new telescopes’ potential in future lunar exploration and deep space missions, including studies of asteroids, Mars, Jupiter, and other celestial bodies.
Construction of the telescopes, which began in September 2023, faced numerous challenges, including high altitudes and extreme cold. Despite these hurdles, they will bolster China’s radio astronomy research and advance cutting-edge studies such as supermassive black holes, fast-varying compact objects, electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves, and galactic dynamics.
(Photo from Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences shows a 40-meter diameter radio telescope antenna in Changbai Mountain, Jilin Province, northeastern China, on Dec 23, 2024.)
