Abstract
We present brief highlights and updates on some newer projects, both in operation/construction and in preparation stages, of astronomical research on Mainland China, with an emphasis on those involving international collaborations. Limited by the scope of this paper, this sample is not meant to be uniform nor comprehensive, and in some cases it may not be fully up to date. For more specific and detailed information on these or other projects, we refer the readers to the official websites of these projects and those of the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Highlights
We present brief highlights and updates on some newer projects, both in operation/construction and in preparation stages, of astronomical research on Mainland China, with an emphasis on those involving international collaborations
A field of 10-100 square degrees centered on the North Celestial Pole is imaged 24 hours per day in a low frequency range from 50 MHz to 200 MHz with a resolution of 24 kHz. 21CMA is a unique low-frequency radio interferometer to server as Square Kilometer Array (SKA) pathfinder in China7
This is a small pathfinder experiment of a future radio telescope array for 21cm HI line intensity mapping of cosmology studies, built to check the basic principles and designs, find out potential problems. It is located in the eastern part of the XinjiangUyghur Autonomous Region in northern China, and is operated by a National Astronomical Observatories CAS (NAOC) group led by Dr Xuelei Chen.The location was selected after a wide survey of radio quiet sites to minimize potential radio frequency interferences (RFI)8
Summary
Scientific research in astronomy is conducted in China (the Mainland) among two main types of institutions: astronomical observatories of the CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) system, and universities of the Ministry of Education system The former includes the National Astronomical Observatories CAS (NAOC) headquartered in Beijing, with several sibling observatories around the country (see Fig. 1), and two relatively independent observatories (Purple Mountain Observatory PMO, and Shanghai Astronomical Observatory SHAO); While the latter encompasses an increasing number of national and provincial universities. The total number of scientists in active astronomical research is estimated to be around 4,200 as of 2019, including about 530 members of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Observing facilities of these institutions are distributed all around the country: while the observing sites tended to concentrate along the coast in the old days, they are increasingly built toward the West and Southwest part of China (Fig. 2).
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