China’s trailblazing US$31 million Mozi telescope ready to train giant eye on night sky
- The northern hemisphere’s most powerful wide field survey device is expected to be fully operational by mid-September
- The telescope’s mission is to precisely map the Milky Way and scan the universe for exploding supernovas and other extreme events
With a main mirror 2.5 metres (eight feet) in diameter, the 230 million yuan (US$31 million) optical telescope will scan the dynamic night sky and track how objects change over time.
Goals for the telescope, jointly developed by researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China and the Purple Mountain Observatory, include monitoring near-Earth objects and searching for extreme events in the universe, such as the formation of stars and galaxies.
Telescope engineer Lou Zheng from the Purple Mountain Observatory told CCTV that while the team is still optimising its imaging quality and improving tracking performance, “commissioning has already started”.
“Once fully operational, [the telescope] will be able to detect signals from extremely faint and distant celestial bodies, including galaxies and galaxy clusters far, far away from the Milky Way,” he said.