📡 Final testing of China's extra-terrestrial seeking radio telescope is finishing up.

At 500 meters in diameter, China's gigantic Aperture Spherical Telescope is off to a great start and is poised to hit the ground running!

Located in southern China's Guizhou province, the world's largest single-dish radio telescope has been in testing and commissioning phases since September 2016. Scientists are using the dish for a variety of tasks, including to search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

China Central Television has reported that the device has already identified 99 rapidly spinning neutron starts known as pulsars.

"In the process of observing signals from celestial bodies, we also collect signals that might be emitted by humans or extraterrestrial intelligence," Zhu Ming, director of the scientific observation and data division at the FAST operations and development center, explained in a recent CCTV video.

"However, this is a huge amount of work, since most signals we see — 99% of them — are various noises, so we need to take our time to identify the signals we want in the noises," Zhu said.

This story originally appeared on Space.com