After 14 years in research, planning and preparation China's largest satelite project is half way through it's realisation.
The Extra Large Telescope that is set to dwarf europes Extremely Large Telescope Project will be 1.7 km and highly sensitive so that it will allow scientists to take photos of far-flung galaxies and stars.
The Satelite will be able to detect, trap and study radio and communication signals from far away galaxies.
The Steel outer frame has taken 6000 tones of steel and over seven months of construction and this will be the supporting stucture that will hold the cable net structure - the next stage.
Li Linyuan,the Project Manager said the next stage is the construction of the egg-shaped structure (cable net structure) which is the belly of the telescope and which will sit on the giant structure's main framework.
The satelite, easily world's largest single-aperture radio telescope will sit over a space that can take 30 football fields - "in the middle of nowhere" - in China's South West Guizhou Province, amidst thick vegetation
Construction started in December 2008 and is expected to be finished in 2016 by which time it would have cost Ɏ700m (700m Chinese Yuan) or US$160m.
Europe's biggest optical telescope project was given approval in June 2012 after a meeting of the member states of the Eso (European Southern Observatory) organisation in Garching, Germany.
It was expected to cost €1bn and is located in Cerro Armazones mountain in Chile.
Scientists hope that when completed, China's telescope will be able to detect far away galaxies by studying radio frequencies as planned, and discover secretes to the Universe.
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