Argentina, China partner on breakthrough radio telescope

Global Business

Argentina, China partner on breakthrough radio telescope

From studying the skies to the characteristics of globalization, Argentina and China are increasingly partnerships to share knowledge and resources.

CGTN’s Joel Richards reports how the two countries are increasing bilateral cooperation in science.

Felix Aguilar Observatory, one of Argentina’s most important astronomy complexes, will be home to the largest radio telescope in South America in a joint Argentina-China project.

Ricardo Podesta is the director of this observatory and he has worked closely with China since the first agreement in astronomy was signed in 1992. He said the installation of the radio telescope is a major project for this country and this region.

“With your eye you see a star. And with the heart you hear it. A radio telescope penetrates deeper into the galaxy, star clouds and stars, and can study the interior of the galaxy and what happens there, it can study black holes, there are an infinite number of studies can do with a radio telescope,” Podesta said.

Weighing 1,000 tons and spanning 40 meters in diameter, the radio telescope measures tectonic movement down to the millimeter and to do so it requires the conditions found at this observatory.

In order for work to begin, a new road must be built to access the site and there are delays, but there is hope that this project moves forward and the radio telescope will be operating by the year 2018. This is just one example of cooperation in science between these two countries.

In the first of its kind in Latin America, the University of Shanghai and the Argentine Science and Technology Research Council have launched a mixed research center in Argentina to study globalization and society. As part of this program, there are already Chinese students in Argentina, though 27-year-old Song Xudong’s interest in this country is not purely academic.

From astronomy to the social sciences, Argentina and China are sharing infrastructure, technology and knowledge to better understand the world, its people and beyond.