In 2024, China plans to build a massive space telescope to study far-off galaxies

Late in the year 2024, China plans to launch its first huge space telescope with the goals of conducting a sky survey, providing fresh understandings of far-off galaxies, and solving the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. 

The Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST) is an optical and ultraviolet space observatory that will have a 6.6-foot-diameter lens, making it similar to the venerable Hubble Space Telescope. The lens will be located on the Chinese space station. The resolution of China’s telescope will be comparable to that of Hubble’s, but the field of view of the CSST will be 350 times larger, according to statements made by Liu Jifeng, deputy director of the National Astronomical Observatories of China. This information was provided to the Chinese state-run outlet Xinhua. 

According to documents from a group within the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the CSST will survey 40 percent of the sky with its 2.5-billion-pixel camera over the course of its planned 10-year mission lifetime. This means that the CSST will be able to observe much larger expanses of the sky at once than the 32-year-old Hubble. 

The James Webb Space Telescope, which is NASA’s own successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and which, as a point of reference, has a main mirror with a diameter of 21.3 feet, was just launched (6.5 m). 

The Compact Space Telescope (CSST) will contain four new sensors that will allow it to map star-forming areas of the Milky Way, identify fast-moving objects like comets and asteroids, investigate supermassive black holes, and directly image exoplanets. 

The name “Xuntian,” which may be translated as “survey the skies,” is also used to refer to the telescope. It will function in the same orbit as the nation’s Tiangong space station, which will make it possible for the telescope to dock with the outpost for the purposes of repairs, maintenance, and upgrades. 

Tiangong is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year according to China’s current plans, which would pave the way for the launch of the space observatory in the following year.