GUIYANG -- The construction of the Core Array of China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) started Wednesday, highlighting China's growing potential in global radio astronomy research.

As a proposed extension of FAST, the Core Array integrates 24 secondary 40-meter antennas implanted within 5 kilometers of the FAST site, said Jiang Peng, deputy director of the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The Chinese-designed array will combine the unprecedented sensitivity of FAST with a high angular resolution, thereby exceeding the capabilities at similar frequencies of next-generation arrays in the world.

The FAST Core Array is estimated to be completed and put into operation in 2027.