World's largest radio telescope commissioned  

Beijing: China on Sunday commissioned the world's largest radio telescope which has a 4,450-panel reflector as large as 30 football pitches, boosting the global hunt for extraterrestrial life. Hundreds of astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts witnessed the official launch of the 500 meter Aperture Spherical Telescope's (FAST) mission in a karst valley in Pingtang County in southwest China's Guizhou Province as it received its first signals from space.