China Eyes Making Earth-based James Webb Telescope in Asia

To compete with other countries optical astronomical observatories, China intends to construct a general-purpose optical telescope as soon as possible between 2024 and 2030, with the largest aperture in Asia.

The Expanding Aperture Segmented Telescope (EAST) project, as it is known in English, is under the direction of Peking University.

(Photo: STR/AFP via Getty Images)
This picture, taken on July 29, 2015, shows the five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) under construction in Pingtang, southwest China's Guizhou province. China has started assembling the world's largest radio telescope, which will have a dish the size of 30 football pitches when completed, state media reported as Beijing steps up its ambitions in outer space.

A Peking University statement said the Asian telescope would be constructed in two phases with 6 and 8 meters diameters, depending on the size.

The statement added that the project would significantly improve China's optical astronomy's observational potential.

Chinese Optical Telescope

The telescope is designed to guarantee the generation of top-notch scientific findings, provides the prerequisites for optical observation, and develops priceless expertise that China may use in the future to build larger-caliber ground optical telescopes and launch massive space-splicing telescopes.

The splicing mirror technology-based 6-8m all-purpose optical telescope can be constructed over the course of two stages and seven years. China will build a rack and a dome in the first phase, which will continue for five years, from 2024 to 2028.

Daily Mail said the primary mirror is divided in half by 18 smaller mirrors, like the James Webb Space Telescope on Earth. The mirror is approximately 6 meters (5.76*6.24 meters) in length. Its caliber is 5.5 meters.

The aperture is 7.8 meters, and the main mirror is around 8 meters long. 18 sub-mirrors will be added to the perimeter during the second phase, which will take place during the next two years, 2029-2030.

The first phase of focal plane instruments consists of imaging cameras and low- and medium-resolution imaging spectrometers, while the second phase will consist of high-resolution spectrometers, polarimeters, and other apparatus.

According to Peking University, the project would cost between 500 and 600 million yuan ($68-71 million).

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Where the Project is Located

Space.com said EAST would be built on Saishiteng Mountain, next to Lenghu Town, in the Qinghai Province of the Tibetan plateau, at around 13,800 feet (4,200 m).

The Lenghu Saishiteng Mountain, at the height of 4,200 meters, has been closely observed by the domestic site selection team for three years.

They have gathered information about weather, dust, and atmospheric turbulence, as well as a sizable amount of information on precipitable water vapor, during this time, as well as information on atmospheric seeing, skylight background, the percentage of clear nights that can be observed, and atmospheric seeing.

Peking University reports that the typical viewing value at the Saishiteng Mountain Station is 0.75 arcsecond, and the skylight background is darker than 22 magnitudes/square arcsecond on a moonless night.

The institution also notes that roughly 70% of the time, the sky is superb and clear.

EAST would be a fantastic addition to China's burgeoning astronomy initiatives. The country built the largest single-aperture radio telescope in the world, the FAST radio telescope, and plans to launch the Xuntian space observatory in late 2023.