China switches on its massive alien-seeking radio telescope

China has flipped the switch on its 500 metre (1,640 ft) wide radio telescope — the largest in the world — which is aimed at the heavens in search of extraterrestrial life.

On Sunday, officials cut the ribbon on the FAST (Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope), located in a basin in the mountainous Pingtang County in Guizhou, southwest China.

SEE ALSO: You know that weird outer space radio signal? It's probably not aliens

The 1.2 billion yuan (US$180 million) FAST has 4,450 panels, and is the size of 30 football fields.

Scientists claimed during the launch that the "super eye in the sky" was sensitive enough to detect a cell phone in use on the moon. Read more...

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Source: www.Mashable.com