Technology has made people’s lives more and more beautiful, and at the same time, it has also allowed mankind to have more and more understanding of the world and the universe. Now that mankind has stepped out of the earth and began to explore the universe, astronomical telescopes are an important tool on the way to explore the universe. It is mankind who invented and created astronomical telescopes that allow us to see the distant stars and have more knowledge of the universe.
There are also different classifications of astronomical telescopes, which can be roughly divided into those used for direct stargazing, such as the powerful Hubble Telescope, which can detect various types of celestial bodies in the depths of the distant universe. The other is a radio telescope that detects cosmic signals. Its main function is to detect and discover various types of wireless electromagnetic waves that exist in the universe.
Compared with the past, radio telescopes are more powerful, their sensitivity and detection range are very wide. As long as they are wireless electromagnetic signals existing in the universe, they may be detected by radio telescopes. Most of the radio signals in the universe come from For some special signals, such as neutron stars, pulsars, etc., there are also very few civilization signals that may come from extraterrestrial civilizations.
The advent of radio telescopes has given humans stronger tools for the exploration of the universe, and what scientists expect most by using radio telescopes is to discover possible alien civilizations in the universe. If an alien civilization has developed into an interstellar civilization, it must be inseparable from wireless electromagnetic technology. In interstellar navigation, communication is inseparable from radio technology. Therefore, there may be some such alien civilization signals in the universe. Once we can By receiving and deciphering such signals, we can determine the existence of alien civilizations and even determine the possible locations of alien civilizations.
In the past, the most powerful radio telescope in the world was the Arecibo Telescope. It is located in the valley of Puerto Rico Island. It has a diameter of 305 meters and was expanded to 350 meters. Science fiction movies are all shot here, and its functions are indeed powerful, making a huge contribution to mankind’s exploration of the universe.
The Largest Radio Telescope
The Arecibo telescope was built in the 1960s and is a very old radio telescope. It can no longer meet the needs of human beings to explore the universe, so a new and more powerful and advanced radio telescope has appeared, largest radio telescopes is the Chinese Sky Eye.
China SkyEye is located in Guizhou, China. It took more than 20 years from the proposal to its completion. It was completed in September 2016 and officially began its testing and commissioning. Its spherical caliber reaches 500 meters, surpassing the caliber of the Arecibo telescope, becoming the world’s largest radio telescope. Its comprehensive performance is 10 times that of the Arecibo telescope.
The appearance of the Chinese Sky Eye directly replaced the position of the Arecibo Telescope, ranking first in the world, while the Arecibo Telescope can only fall in second place. Since its opening on September 25, 2016, China Sky Eye has discovered 59 pulsars, of which 44 have been confirmed as newly discovered pulsars.
The reason why China SkyEye is so powerful is that it is composed of more than 4,000 active reflective units, and each small unit can focus, so its sensitivity is twice that of Arecihu, and its sky survey speed is ten times that of it. Moreover, the opening angle of the sky eye can reach 110-120 degrees, and it will not lag behind in the next 30 years.
The era of Arecibo has come to an end, and the emergence of the Chinese Sky Eye directly puts Arecibo at risk of being shut down. In order to reduce spending, the United States may put investment in other projects and take measures to close Arecibo. Of course, for many Americans, they still have deep feelings for Arecibo, but it has been occupying the number one position in the world since the 1960s. This is the pride of Americans.
Therefore, someone launched a campaign on the Internet, asking the government to continue to provide financial support. What its fate will be in the future is still unknown. However, Arecibo is not completely behind, it is still stronger than China’s celestial eye in some aspects, for example, it can image the surface of asteroids with high resolution. In addition, the telescope also plays an important role in a gravitational wave exploration. But after all, it’s been some years, and many aspects are no longer applicable.
The future era is the era of China’s Sky Eye. Its powerful sky survey capability can almost detect the range of the universe currently observable by humans, which is in the range of tens of billions of light years. Within this range, as long as it is a wireless electromagnetic signal, it may be detected and received by the eye of the sky. The main task of China’s Sky Eye is to detect alien civilizations. It receives countless signals in the universe, screens these signals to get out of the mysterious signals that may exist, and then analyzes and cracks these mysterious signals to determine whether it is an alien. Issued by civilization.
Of course, it may not be a difficult task for China’s celestial eye to detect possible alien civilizations in the universe. But it may be very difficult to decipher these mysterious signals. It should be understood that alien civilization and human civilization may be completely different civilizations. Even if they are both technological civilizations, their development directions and scientific and technological theories will be very different.
Human radio signals are invented based on various knowledge systems of human civilization, and the radio signals of alien civilizations are naturally invented based on various knowledge of alien civilizations. The two radio signals may have completely different modes. We Using the human radio model to crack the radio signals of alien civilizations may be an impossible situation.
In addition, for human beings, the propagation speed of radio wave signals is the speed of light, but we know that the speed of light is only the basic speed in the universe. Such a propagation speed is far from meeting the needs of interstellar communication. If the alien civilization is already an interstellar civilization, and it needs to complete fast communication within the range of hundreds or thousands of light years, the communication speed required is beyond the speed of light. Therefore, the radio waves of the alien civilization may be a super-light wave. Such radio waves are completely incomprehensible to us, and whether they can be detected and received by our current radio telescopes is still unknown.
In any case, there is no doubt about the power of China’s Sky Eye. It may become the first radio telescope discovered by mankind to prove the existence of an alien civilization. We look forward to this day.