The world's largest telescope will be completed this week in China and it has scientists very, very excited. "China's latest telescope will be able to look faster and further than past searches for extraterrestrial intelligence," says Douglas Vakoch, president of METI International, an organization dedicated to detecting alien intelligence. Cradled in a karst hollow in the mountainous landscape of southwest China, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST , starts operation September 25. This could provide scientists with the capability to detect gravitational waves -- ripples in space-time -- that shed light on how galaxies evolved. World's largest radio telescope FAST in SW China's #Guizho to operate from Sept. 25 pic.twitter.com/13LV2Froi2 — People's Daily,China (@PDChina) September 17, 2016Ambitions space programFAST also underpins China's bold space program, which is kicking into high gear.

Source: CNN September 21, 2016 22:07 UTC