Bigger ear will listen out for ET

The world's largest radio telescope, which is expected to be completed in 2016, will be able to "see" three times deeper into space than current telescopes, and, as well as exploring distant galaxies and black holes, it will join the search for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.

When it comes to radio telescopes, it's a case of the bigger the better, and China is building a 500-meter aperture single dish radio telescope in Guizhou province, southern China. Costing more than 700 million yuan ($110 million), it will allow astronomers and scientists from around the world to delve into the secrets of the universe based on cutting-edge technologies.

China will also build a hard X-ray modulation telescope for black hole studies, between 2014 and 2016, said Su Dingqiang, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former president of the Chinese Astronomical Society, at the opening ceremony of the International Astronomical Union's 28th General Assembly on Tuesday. It will be China's first space telescope.