China started to build the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope on September 23, the QiTai Radio Telescope (QTT), in Qitai County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The QiTai Radio Telescope (QTT) will have a steerable dish with a diameter of 110 meters, 10 percent larger than that of the Green Bank Telescope in America's West Virginia, which is currently the largest of this type in the world.

It will take about six years to complete the construction of the QTT. Upon completion, it will be able to cover 75 percent of the sky with high sensitivity, providing a world-class observation platform for studies in such areas as black holes, quasars, fast radio bursts, dark matter, gravitational waves, and the origins of life in the universe.