China's first large-field sub-second sampling 1-meter survey telescope was built in Lenghu, Qinghai

China News Service, Xining, September 5 (Reporter Sun Rui) The first light (first observation and imaging) ceremony of the Tianyu Telescope, China's first large-field sub-second sampling 1-meter survey telescope, was held on September 5 at the Qinghai Lenghu Astronomical Observation Base, marking the official completion of the telescope.

The Tianyu Telescope is the leading telescope of JUST (Shanghai Jiao Tong University Spectral Telescope). The project will be launched in 2022. It will be led by the Li Zhengdao Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and developed by the Shanghai Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. With an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, Seshteng Mountain is the site of a world-class optical astronomy observatory.

Feng Fabo, leader of the Tianyu project and associate professor at the Li Zhengdao Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said that Tianyu will carry out continuous photometric monitoring of hundreds of millions of celestial bodies and discover extrasolar planets, variable stars, supernovae and small solar system objects.

"It is expected that several Jupiter-like transiting planets will be discovered within five years, which will ultimately answer a fundamental question: Are humans, the Earth, and the solar system unique in the universe?" Feng Fabo said.

Yang Xiaohu, JUST project leader and deputy director of the Li Zhengdao Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said that Tianyu will also conduct pre-engineering research for JUST’s observation operation and maintenance, automatic triggering of transient sources and task scheduling to help its first light in 2027. "Tianyu's mission is to pick out possible gems from a large pile of stones, while JUST uses a spectrometer to identify whether they are real gems." The two telescopes will form a complete scientific chain of "discovery-certification".

Rui Yicheng, the developer and doctoral student of the data pipeline who was on duty on the mountain during the first light, said that Tianyu generates more than 10TB of raw data every night. The data pipeline completes image calibration and superposition on the mountain in real time. In the future, combined with artificial intelligence, it can automatically notify the global telescope relay to follow up within a few minutes after a new target is discovered.

After the first light, the Tianyu Telescope is expected to start scientific sky surveys in October 2026.