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Brilio.net/en - Over 9,000 residents who dwell near the world's largest alien-searching facility project in China are forced to move another home.
The radio telescope, named the Five-hundred-metreAperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) is currently under construction. It features a giant plate with massive diameter of (guess it!) 500 meters. It is scheduled to be completed in September 2016, and China hopes it would provide further giant steps of mankind in effort of detecting and studying about extraterrestrial life.
According to Xinhua, the plate is located in Guizhou, southwest China, where the government plans to relocate people who live within a five kilometers radius before its completion.
The significant action is necessary in order to protect the telescope, which needs a "sound electromagnetic wave environment, says Li Yuecheng, secretary-general of the CPPCC Guizhou Provincial Committee.
Affected residents will be granted with 12,000 yuan (about Rp24.8 millions) in subsidies from the government, and ethnic minorities facing difficulties in finding housing will get an additional 10,000 yuan (about Rp20.64 millions). The report did not specify how the residents would apply for the additional subsidies.
The construction of the telescope started in 2011 at a cost of 1.2 billion yuan (about Rp2.5 trillion). The second largest radio telescope the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, with 300 meters diameter.
The size of FAST plate is equal to the size of 30 football fields, and will be lined with 4,600 triangular panels that will reflect and focus radio waves, allowing scientists to detect radio signals tens of billions of light years away.
Source:Mashable
(brl/tis)
