A dish-style radio telescope is being constructed in China that will allow astronomers to detect galaxies and pulsars at unprecedented distances. Not only will the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) be almost 200 meters larger than the current largest telescope in the world, it will be the only telescope of its kind with the ability to change shape and move the position of its focus. The dimension of the telescope, once completed, will be equal to 30 standard football fields, making FAST the biggest telescope in the world. The sensitivity will be 10 times better than the 100 m telescope in Bonn Germany, and the comprehensive performance will be 10 times better than Arecibo 300 in America.

As shown below, the Karst depression in the Guizhou province of China provides a unique topographical condition ideal for building the FAST.

Figure 1: Artist rendition of FAST installed in Karst depression. The feed cabin is the purple object in the middle.

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