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The Qitai radio telescope

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Abstract

This study presents a general outline of the Qitai radio telescope (QTT) project. Qitai, the site of the telescope, is a county of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, located in the east Tianshan Mountains at an elevation of about 1800 m. The QTT is a fully steerable, Gregorian-type telescope with a standard parabolic main reflector of 110 m diameter. The QTT has adopted an umbrella support, homology-symmetric lightweight design. The main reflector is active so that the deformation caused by gravity can be corrected. The structural design aims to ultimately allow high-sensitivity observations from 150 MHz up to 115 GHz. To satisfy the requirements for early scientific goals, the QTT will be equipped with ultra-wideband receivers and large field-of-view multi-beam receivers. A multi-function signal-processing system based on RFSoC and GPU processor chips will be developed. These will enable the QTT to operate in pulsar, spectral line, continuum and Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) observing modes. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and radio frequency interference (RFI) control techniques are adopted throughout the system design. The QTT will form a world-class observational platform for the detection of low-frequency (nanoHertz) gravitational waves through pulsar timing array (PTA) techniques, pulsar surveys, the discovery of binary black-hole systems, and exploring dark matter and the origin of life in the universe. The QTT will also play an important role in improving the Chinese and international VLBI networks, allowing high-sensitivity and high-resolution observations of the nuclei of distant galaxies and gravitational lensing systems. Deep astrometric observations will also contribute to improving the accuracy of the celestial reference frame. Potentially, the QTT will be able to support future space activities such as planetary exploration in the solar system and to contribute to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Na Wang, Qian Xu, Jun Ma, Zhiyong Liu, Qi Liu, Hailong Zhang, Xin Pei, Maozheng Chen, Mingshuai Li, Rui Li, Ning Li, Guljaina Kazezkhan, Wenming Yan, Gang Wu, Lang Cui, Ming Zhang & Haitao Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Na Wang, Qian Xu, Jun Ma, Zhiyong Liu, Qi Liu, Hailong Zhang, Xin Pei, Maozheng Chen, Mingshuai Li, Rui Li, Ning Li, Guljaina Kazezkhan, Wenming Yan, Lang Cui & Ming Zhang

  3. Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Radio Astrophysics, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Na Wang, Qian Xu, Zhiyong Liu, Wenming Yan, Lang Cui & Ming Zhang

  4. Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Microwave Technology, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Jun Ma, Qi Liu, Xin Pei & Maozheng Chen

  5. Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO Space and Astronomy, Epping, 1710, Australia

    Richard N. Manchester

  6. Department of Astronomy, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Kejia Lee

  7. School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Xingwu Zheng

  8. Dr. Hans Jürgen Kärcher Engineering Office, Karben, 61184, Germany

    Hans J. Kärcher

  9. Northwest China Research Institute of Electronic Equipment, Xi’an, 710065, China

    Wulin Zhao, Hongwei Li & Dongwei Li

  10. OHB Digital Connect (MT Mechatronics), Mainz, 55130, Germany

    Hans J. Kärcher, Martin Süss & Matthias Reichert

  11. Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, Beijing, 100045, China

    Zhongyi Zhu

  12. Guangzhou Institute of Technology, Xidian University, Guangzhou, 510555, China

    Congsi Wang

Authors
  1. Na Wang
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  2. Qian Xu
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  3. Jun Ma
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  4. Zhiyong Liu
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  5. Qi Liu
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  7. Xin Pei
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  8. Maozheng Chen
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  9. Richard N. Manchester
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  10. Kejia Lee
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  26. Lang Cui
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  27. Ming Zhang
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  28. Haitao Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Na Wang.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2021YFC2203501, 2021YFC2203502, 2021YFC2203503, and 2021YFC2203600), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12173077, 11873082, 11803080, and 12003062), the Scientific Instrument Developing Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. PTYQ2022YZZD01), the Operation, Maintenance and Upgrading Fund for Astronomical Telescopes and Facility Instruments, budgeted from the Ministry of Finance of China and Administrated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences “Light of West China” Program (Grant No. 2021-XBQNXZ-030).

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Wang, N., Xu, Q., Ma, J. et al. The Qitai radio telescope. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 66, 289512 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-023-2131-1

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