Expert Questions China’s Plan to Expand Its ‘Sky Eye’ Program in Search for Extraterrestrials

The Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in Pingtang, in southwestern China's Guizhou Province on September 24, 2016 . STR/AFP via Getty Images

Beijing has been expanding its space exploration to search for extraterrestrials, which one Chinese astronomer once said is one of the ultimate goals of such explorations.

“Sky Eye” is a single-dish 500-meter aperture spherical radio telescope (FAST) with a receiving area of around 30 football fields. It was completed in September 2016 in Guiyang, Guizhou, a city in southwest China.