China plays key role in birth of supersensitive radio telescope

China is helping to build the world's largest and most advanced next-generation radio telescope that can probe the "dawn of the universe" with unprecedented detail and efficiency, the project's chief Chinese scientist said on Tuesday.

The project is called Square Kilometer Array, or SKA, an international mega scientific endeavor with 10 cornerstone member states and several partner countries. It is China's second-largest international science collaboration after the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, the world's largest nuclear fusion experiment.

SKA is an interconnected network of more than 1.3 million antennas - including 250 antenna stations, each with a 60-meter-diameter dish and 2,500 reflector antennas each with a 15-meter-diameter dish.