China’s "Three Gorges Antarctic Eye" is a 3.2-meter radio/millimeter-wave telescope at Zhongshan Station, Antarctica. Built by CTGU and SHNU, it studies gases like neutral hydrogen and ammonia to explore star formation. Its dual-wave capability offers broader space insights, enhancing China’s expanding astronomy efforts in extreme polar conditions.
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China has unveiled the "Three Gorges Antarctic Eye," a 3.2-metre aperture radio/millimetre-wave telescope, at a scientific research station in Antarctica.
It is a new telescope, 3.2 meters wide, established at China’s Zhongshan Station in Antarctica.
It is a special kind of telescope called a radio/millimeter-wave telescope, which means it can detect radio waves and other invisible light from space.
This telescope to help scientists study things like neutral hydrogen (a type of gas in space) and ammonia molecules. These are important because they help to understand how stars are born and how gases move around in space.
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Two universities in China worked together to build this telescope: China Three Gorges University (CTGU) and Shanghai Normal University (SHNU). They started working on it in 2023 and spent two years solving some tough problems. Antarctica is one of the hardest places on Earth to build anything because it is so cold and windy. The temperatures can drop below -60°C, and the winds can blow as hard as a hurricane. |
This telescope works in both radio waves and millimeter waves, which are types of invisible light. Most telescopes only focus on one type of wave, but this one can do both. This gives scientists a bigger picture of what’s happening in space.
Once the telescope starts running smoothly, researchers from CTGU plan to visit Antarctica to conduct experiments on-site. They will use the telescope to collect data and study cosmic phenomena.
China is also expanding its astronomy efforts in Antarctica. Before this telescope, they had other instruments, like the Antarctic Survey Telescopes (AST3), which were used for different kinds of observations.
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PRACTICE QUESTION Q. Arrange the following seas from west to east based on their Antarctic coastal location:
Select the correct answer using the codes given below: A. 1-2-3-4 B. 4-2-3-1 C. 1-4-2-3 D. 1-2-4-3 Answer: A Explanation: The Amundsen Sea lies west of the Ross Sea, which lies west of the Davis Sea, and the Weddell Sea lies east of all, making the correct west-to-east order: Amundsen → Ross → Davis → Weddell.
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