China is turbocharging its cosmic exploration game! 🚀 Construction began this week on a core array for the world-renowned Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), nicknamed the 'Sky Eye.' By adding 24 secondary 40-meter antennas within 5km of the main dish, this upgrade could make FAST the ultimate cosmic detective by 2027. 🔍✨
The new tech aims to boost FAST's sensitivity like noise-canceling headphones for space signals 🎧, while achieving sharper cosmic snapshots than other global arrays. But engineers face two major tech hurdles: developing next-gen room-temperature receivers (think 5G routers for alien signals 📡) and creating data-crunching systems that can sync different-sized telescopes—a first for Chinese astronomy. 🌠
Jiang Peng, deputy director at the National Astronomical Observatories, confirms the team is 'leveling up' FAST's capabilities despite challenges. Stay tuned as China rewrites the rules of deep-space discovery! 👾🛸
