CHINA is planning to build the world鈥檚 largest survey telescope, which
will allow astronomers to record the spectra of 4000 stars or galaxies at a
time.
When it is completed near Beijing by 2003, the Large Sky Area Multi-Object
Fibre Spectroscopy Telescope (LAMOST), will collect light from a 5掳 sector of
sky. A robotic device will position 4000 optical fibres so that they each
receive the emissions of a distant star or galaxy, transmitting the light to 20
spectrographs. This is ten times as many fibres as in existing telescopes of
this type.
The resulting spectra will reveal information about the speed of movement,
temperature and composition of the celestial objects. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very important
project,鈥� says Neil Parker, deputy director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory
in Cambridge, which is this week hosting a Chinese delegation to advise them on
building LAMOST. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e taking a big step in survey astronomy.鈥�
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