Target in sight for giant telescope

The final panel was placed onto the world's largest single-aperture radio telescope on Sunday, putting the project on target to start searching the stars this year.

Situated in a natural basin in mountainous Pingtang county, Guizhou province, the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, known as FAST, has a reflecting surface equal in size to 30 soccer fields, breaking the record set in 1963 by the United States' 305-meter Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

At 10:47 am on Sunday, Yan Jun, general manager of the project, gave the order to fix the last piece. The process, which involved cranes and robots, took about 40 minutes and was marked with a fireworks celebration.