China has built the largest telescope in the world, but there are no specialists in the country who can control it



    The PRC leadership loves large-scale projects. And indeed, everything in this country is big - huge cities with millions of inhabitants, a huge number of roads and interchanges, a rich economy that continues to grow, although not at as fast a pace as before. Recently, China's list of achievements has been replenished with another - scientists and engineers built the largest radio telescope in the world. Its diameter is 200 meters larger than the diameter of the previous record holder from the Arecibo Observatory .

    Now the system is undergoing the latest tests, and will begin to work in September. The project cost amounted to $ 180 million. The project took several years to complete - work began in 2011. It is interesting that the Chinese plan to make their telescope accessible to everyone - at least for astronomers, whose research is important for science.

    The radio telescope was built in a sparsely populated region, in the south-central region of China. Despite the fact that there are not so many people here, nevertheless, because of this project, the government had to resettle 2029 families. This is done so that the radio emission generated by household appliances and electronics of local residents does not interfere with the operation of the telescope. A total of 9110 people affected the resettlement, each of whom received compensation in the amount of $ 1800 (equivalent).

    After creating the telescope, it suddenly turned outthat there is no specialist in the country with the necessary experience to manage such a giant. For this reason, Chinese scientists have turned to the international community for help. The request consists in the need to find the right specialist who could easily manage the entire created infrastructure and, accordingly, the scientists who take part in the project. A publication on the search for a specialist was posted on many resources in May, but the right person has not yet been found.

    The reason, in general, is clear. The fact is that a candidate must have at least 20 years of experience in the field of radio astronomy, and not in a regular position, but as a leader. Also, the potential head of the Chinese observatory must meet a number of other criteria, including a doctorate, as well as a professorship in one of the leading universities in the world.

    According to experts, in the world there are no more than 40 astronomers who meet the requirements of the Chinese. The fact is that radio astronomy is a rather specific industry. It is not as large as the others, and there are not so many professionals here either. All of them are in demand and work in the best observatories in the world. This is an interesting work, which, moreover, is also well paid. True, the Chinese are ready to offer about $ 1 million per year for a specialist who would agree to go to work for them. But since there are still no responses to the vacancy, probably the scientists who meet the criteria of the Chinese do not really want to move to a new place.



    “I'm sure they will find someone. But most American astronomers do not really want to work abroad. For example, it was difficult to find people for La Sirena, I don’t understand this, considering how beautiful and friendly the Chileans are here, ”said Santsev, one of the participants in the Giant Magellan Telescope project ; Then a similar problem arose - they built a telescope, but they found people to work with it with difficulty.

    The scientific community had questions about the need to create a radio telescope in the process of discussing the project. The fact is that this is a passive “plate” that is unable to send radio signals, unlike the same radio telescope in Arecibo. The diameter of the Chinese system is 200 meters larger than the telescope from Arecibo (500 meters instead of 300). But the effective FAST size is 400 meters, so here the difference is not so great. The Arecibo system, thanks to the fact that it can send radio signals, is an effective tool for detecting asteroids located in close proximity to the earth. FAST does not have such an opportunity.

    Be that as it may, the search for the candidate continues. Perhaps a specialist who will take the place of the project manager will be able to prove that FAST is an extremely important tool that can do a lot in skilled hands.

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