China has taken a big step forward in space exploration: a huge radio telescope – the largest in the world – has begun operating from its base in the southwest of the country. <br /><br /> Its mission includes trying to understand better the origins of the universe, and searching for extraterrestrial life.<br /><br /> The telescope’s giant dish, 500 metres across, was finished in July and has now started receiving signals from space according to Chinese scientists.<br /><br /> Engineers say more than 100 tests were performed in preparation for the launch.<br /><br /> Some 8,000 people were evacuated from the valley in Guizhou province where it has been built as it needs a quiet environment, with radio silence within a five-kilometre radius.<br /><br /> Despite the vast scale of the operation the structure has taken only five years to build at a cost of around 160 million euros.<br /><br /> Beijing hopes the telescope will symbolise a transition towards investment in science and technology, and away from cheap manufacturing.<br /><br /> Its sheer size will help it detect signals from far flung corners of the cosmos.<br /><br /> China’s space ambitions include building a space station and putting a human on the moon in the next 20 years.<br /><br /> The country once barely registered on the scale in terms of space exploration. It now ranks just behind the US.<br /><br /> China's giant telescope may lead to “discoveries beyond wildest imagination”: U.S. expert https://t.co/YUSCCNKWGR pic.twitter.com/hy3Wn6bB6r— People's Daily,China (@PDChina) September 25, 2016<br />
