FAST: The Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope

In the 90 years since its inception, radio astronomy has become the setting of almost all major astronomical discoveries and a hothouse for Nobel Prizes in Physics. As a result, countries all over the world have actively explored new engineering concepts to build large-aperture radio telescopes. Limited by their self-weight and wind load, 100 m radio telescopes are regarded as the maximum limit of traditional radio telescopes. This perspective allowed the Arecibo 305 m telescope-built by Cornell University in the United States in 1963-to dominate the field for more than half a century. During this period, scholars have been exploring how to further expand their horizons in order to make a breakthrough in the problem of the universe.