In order to catch the aliens…The new 500m wide Aperture Spherical telescope or shortly FAST is  the size of 30 football fields and is designed specially for exploring the space searching for extraterrestrial life.

universetoday.com

According to the deputy head of the National Astronomical Observation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zheng Xiaonian, the scientists will soon start their trials and debugging of the telescope. The main purpose of the telescope will include :
1. Survey neutral hydrogen in remote galaxies and detecting faint pulsars;
2. So far there have been more than 2000 pulsars detected;
3. Improving detecting low frequency gravitational waves;
4. Searching for extraterrestrial life.

sputniknews.com

One all the tests are going to be completed, the telescope will be installed instead of the current Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which is so far carrying the title of the largest telescope in the world.

China has mentioned that this space program has only peaceful purposes, which US Defense Department didn’t find very convincing.

source:bbc