In line with a decision made by the CAS leadership, an international review and advisory conference on FAST (the 500 meter aperture spherical radio telescope) was held from March 29 to April 1 in Beijing.
Headed by Prof. Fred Lo, Director of the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the panel consists of 17 leading astronomers in the world, including 11 from overseas. Based on the report on the FAST development and progress of three key technologies made by principal investigator of the project NAN Rendong and his colleagues from the National Astronomical Observatories at CAS (NAOC), the panel made an comprehensive appraisal on various aspects of the project, ranging from scientific objectives; key technologies; implementation schedule; and the personnel, funding and management mode for the of construction and operation of the project. They also visited the 50-meter scale-down model of the project at the Miyun Station of NAOC.
The panel speaks highly of the accomplishments achieved by the project, stressing that it will provide opportunities for solving new millennium problems. The experts believe the project is ready to be developed into a megascience program. They also made suggestions on its future development.
According to Prof. Nan, FAST will be the largest radio telescope in the world after its completion. The innovative engineering concept and design pave a new road to realizing a huge single dish in the most effective way. Three outstanding features of the telescope are the unique karst depressions as the sites, the active main reflector which corrects spherical aberration on the ground to achieve full polarization and a wide band without involving a complex feed system, and the light focus cabin driven by cables and servomechanism plus a parallel robot as secondary adjustable system to carry the most precise parts of the receivers. Being the most sensitive radio telescope, FAST will enable astronomers to jumpstart many of the science goals, for example, the neutral hydrogen line surveying in distant galaxies out to very large redshifts, looking for the first shining star, detecting thousands of new pulsars, etc. Extremely interesting and exotic objects may yet await discovery by FAST. As a multi-science platform, the telescope will provide treasures to astronomers, as well as bring prosperity to other research, e.g. space weather study, deep space exploration and national security. The construction of FAST itself is expected to promote the development in high technology of relevant fields.
