China wants to launch its first giant space telescope by the end of 2023. This instrument for observing the sky will provide new insights into distant galaxies, and unlock the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.
The Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST) is an optical and ultraviolet space observatory equipped with a 2 meter diameter lens, making it comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope.
"Although the resolution of the Chinese telescope will be similar to that of Hubble, the CSST's field of view will be 350 times larger," said Liu Jifeng, deputy director of the China National Astronomical Observatory, quoted from Space.com.
This means CSST will be able to observe a much larger expanse of sky at any one time than 32-year-old Hubble, and will survey 40% of the sky with a 2.5 billion-pixel camera over the course of the planned 10-year mission.
Meanwhile, NASA has launched its own successor to Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope. For comparison, James Webb has a main mirror with a diameter of 6.5 m.
CSST will carry four additional instruments to map the star-forming regions of the Milky Way, detect fast-moving objects such as comets and asteroids, study supermassive black holes, and directly image exoplanets.
The telescope is also known as "Xuntian," which translates to "survey the sky." The instrument will operate in the same orbit as the Tiangong space station, allowing the telescope to dock there when it needs repair and maintenance.
China plans to complete Tiangong by the end of this year. This program will pave the way for the launch of the space telescope a year later.
