China’s 500m telescope

Nestled deep in the wooded hills of south-west China lies a feat of engineering that could change everything we know about the universe.

Nicknamed The Eye of Heaven, the Five hundred metre Aperture Spherical Telescope – known as FAST – is the most advanced radio telescope on the planet. It is also the biggest, with a surface area twice the size of any other.

It can detect radio signals tens of billions of light years away, hugely increasing the possibility of discovering extra-terrestrial life. Its remote site is also more than an hour from the nearest highway so simply building something so huge in such an inaccessible place is an engineering triumph. Impossible Engineering August 1 on Yesterday