The world's largest telescope in Guizhou province, China is currently undergoing initial tests before it starts operations.

This colossal dish, which measures 2,640 feet wide and contains 4,450 reflector panels, is now ready to receive signals from outer space. The telescope is known as FAST or (Five-hundred-meter Single-Aperture Radio Telescope), Chinese officials marked this scientific milestone with a ceremony on Sunday.

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According to FAST Project Manager, Peng Bo, for many years scientists have traveled out of China to conduct observations. Now, the country has the largest telescope in the world.

FAST has been under construction for five years. The project cost around US $105 million to develop and build.

Since 2009, about 9,100 people living near the telescope have been relocated to four different settlement areas with the help of the government. Each resident was provided with $1,800 to relocate. Ethnic minorities were also given an additional $1,500.

No resident is allowed to wander or live around the hills within three miles of the telescope which form a depression shaped liked a perfect triangle.

Before FAST, the world's largest radio telescope was the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which measures 1,000 feet across.

The main objective of FAST is to detect radio waves originating from deep space, possibly from distant star systems.

Peng noted that a traditional telescope usually needs two years to become fully functional, but FAST is so huge that it would require three years to become fully operational. Despite this, Peng said that scientists can perform experiments.

In July, FAST went online for the first time for trial observations, and the telescope obtained data from a pulsar located 1,351 light years away, according to Chinese state media. China will use one of its most powerful supercomputers--the SkyEye-1--to process data from FAST at 200 teraflops every second.