Engineer advocates youth astronomy education

After earning his PhD in 2009, Jiang Peng, now 47, joined the team behind the world's largest single-dish radio telescope and now serves as its chief engineer. As a deputy to the National People's Congress, he hoped to see astronomy more integrated into primary and secondary school curricula to ignite children's first spark of scientific curiosity.

When Jiang first heard of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) project, he was astounded by its unimaginable structural and scale challenges. "I have an insatiable curiosity and a passion for tackling tough problems. I was eager to discover how this project would be realized," he said.

Motivated by that drive, he joined the FAST team.

The evolution of telescopes is essentially a quest for greater sensitivity. Scientists have long pursued bigger apertures because a bigger dish means a greater light-collecting area, which captures richer cosmic details.

Jiang's team overcame numerous hurdles to achieve a staggering 500-meter span, from maintaining structural precision to installing massive components.

The telescope's reflector comprises 6,670 steel cables, making it among the world's largest and most precise cable networks.

"The contrast between the telescope's precision requirements and its immense structure meant every step felt like walking on thin ice," he recalled about the construction process. "No one had attempted these tasks before and there wasn't even a precedent of failure to learn from."

After years of relentless breakthroughs, the grand project was completed and commissioned in 2016. What were once considered wild, out-of-the-box ideas have now coalesced into a formidable asset.

The FAST team is forging ahead with developing domestically produced receivers, devices that convert the electromagnetic waves captured by the vast reflector into electrical signals. "We are still enhancing FAST's overall performance amid international competition," Jiang said.

"Our exploration of the cosmos will never cease," Jiang told China Daily. "Now that my team and I are gradually transforming our visions into reality, I can't imagine a more fulfilling feeling."

He attributes his perseverance in research to the joy it brings and a deep-seated desire to explore the unknown.

According to Jiang, although he entered the field with a solid academic background, his understanding of astronomy was relatively limited before joining the team. Through his experience, he came to appreciate astronomy's boundless potential — a realization that has inspired him to advocate for the subject's inclusion in the curriculum during the national two sessions.

He proposed expanding the current geography curriculum in primary and secondary schools to "Earth and Astronomical Sciences".This approach would remedy current shortcomings in astronomical education by teaching students to view the Earth against the backdrop of the universe.

"Historically, astronomy has left an indelible mark on human society and played a pivotal role in intellectual enlightenment," Jiang believes. He asserts that astronomy not only sparks scientific interest among youth but also helps them grasp the cosmos on a grand scale.

"Stars can burn gently and reliably for billions of years due to a delicate balance between gravitational forces and nuclear fusion. This process shows multiple scientific principles. While the theory might seem abstract, the vivid astronomical phenomena provide students with tangible and intriguing examples," he explained while describing the charming phenomenon of a star's steady burn.

Jiang urged education departments to involve professional astronomy experts in textbook compilation, ensuring that astronomical knowledge is integrated into the existing curriculum in a clear and accessible manner.

"Astronomy taps into humanity's deepest curiosity, it helps young people understand the universe and, in doing so, themselves. That, for our nation's youth, is truly important," Jiang said.

Liu Boqian contributed to this story.