Advertisement

The Chinese ghost town with a brighter stargazing future

  • Lenghu on the Tibetan Plateau was abandoned when the oil ran out in the 1960s
  • But researchers say the isolated area is just the place to look into the depths of the universe

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
1
Researchers say Lenghu in Qinghai province is one of the best places in the world to observe the universe. Photo: National Astronomical Observatories of China

When the oil wells dried up more than half a century ago in the remote Tibetan Plateau town of Lenghu, the people left.

Advertisement

The arid, high-altitude community in Qinghai province became a ghost town, abandoned save for the occasional intrepid tourist or photographer.

But in the last few years, the town has become the centre of intense scientific activity, with Chinese researchers putting it on the map as one of the world’s best locations for astronomical observations.

In a paper published in the journal Nature on Wednesday the researchers said their three-year study indicated that Lenghu is on par with the world’s best astronomical sites, including Cerro Paranal in Chile and Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

And for some observations that require extreme clarity to look back to the early universe, the conditions at Lenghu – meaning “cold lake” – have no rival.

Advertisement

On a typical day at Lenghu, “there is no cloud for 10 hours. It is the same at night,” lead astronomer Deng Licai with the National Astronomical Observatories said in an interview with state television on Thursday. “And there is very little water in the air.”

loading
Advertisement