Asteroid named after FAST telescope founder

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An asteroid has been named after Nan Rendong, the scientist who founded China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), with approval from the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Asteroid Nanrendong, coded 79694, was discovered on September 25, 1998, by astronomers with the Beijing Schmidt CCD Asteroid Program at Xinglong Observatory in northern China, according to a recent IAU communique.

An official with China's National Astronomical Observatories read the communique at a ceremony Monday in southwest China's Guizhou Province, and a sculpture of Nan was unveiled at the ceremony to mark the naming.

The sculpture of Nan Rendong. /VCG Photo

FAST is the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. It was set up in 2016, on the same day as the asteroid was discovered 20 years ago.

Nan worked as the chief scientist in charge of the FAST site selection and construction from 1994. He aimed to create the largest super-sensitive "ear" on Earth in an attempt to seek distant sounds in the universe and decode cosmic messages.

He devoted 22 years to the project and died of cancer in 2017 at the age of 72.

(Top image: China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency