BEIJING — More than 9,000 Chinese villagers are leaving their homes to make way for aliens.

北京——逾9000名中国村民离开家乡，为外星人让路。

It is not a colonization plan from outer space. The Chinese government is relocating thousands of villagers to complete construction by September of the world’s biggest radio telescope, whose intended purpose is to detect signs of extraterrestrial life.

这不是外太空的殖民计划。中国政府计划在9月前重新安置数千名村民，以建成世界最大的射电望远镜，探测地外生命的迹象。

The telescope would be 500 meters, or 1,640 feet, in diameter, by far the largest of its kind in the world. It is called FAST, for Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, and costs an estimated 1.2 billion renminbi, or $184 million.

该望远镜口径将达到500米，是全世界此类望远镜中最大的。它被称为五百米口径球面射电望远镜(FAST)，造价约为12亿元人民币。

The mass relocation was announced on Tuesday in a report by Xinhua, the state news agency. The report said officials were relocating 2,029 families, a total of 9,110 people, living within a three-mile radius of the telescope in the area of Pingtang and Luodian Counties in the southwestern province of Guizhou.

官方媒体新华社于周二公布了这个大规模搬迁计划。报道称，官员们将重新安置项目周边5公里内核心区——中国西南部贵州省平塘县和罗甸县——共2029户、9110人。

Officials plan to give each person the equivalent of $1,800 for housing compensation, the report said. Guizhou is one of China’s poorest provinces.

报道称，官员们计划按照每人1.2万元标准进行补助。贵州是中国最贫穷的省份之一。

Forced relocations for infrastructure projects are common across China, and the people being moved by officials often complain both of the eviction from their homes and inadequate compensation. The Three Gorges Dam displaced more than one million people along the Yangtze River, and the middle route of the gargantuan South-North Water Diversion Project has resulted in the relocation of 350,000 people to make way for a series of canals.

为基础设施项目而强迫迁移的做法在中国各地很普遍，被迫搬迁的人经常抱怨称自己被赶出家园，同时没有获得足够多的补助。三峡大坝项目致使长江沿岸100多万人迁移，庞大的南水北调中线工程导致35万人搬迁，为一系列水道让路。

The Chinese government has announced ambitious plans for its space program, at a time when the American one is in retreat. China aims to put an astronaut on the moon and a space station in orbit. The FAST project is another important element in the larger plan.

中国政府宣布了庞大的太空计划，而此时美国的太空计划正在收缩。中国计划将宇航员送上月球，并打造在轨运行的空间站。FAST项目是这个大规模计划的重要组成部分。

The telescope is being built in a wide depression among karst hills. The depression is far from cities and ideal for picking up radio transmissions, the Xinhua report said. Scientists began looking for a site in 1994 and finally settled on the Dawodang depression.

该望远镜选址于岩溶山区的一片宽阔的洼地。新华社报道称，这片洼地远离城市，有利于无线电信号的接收。科学家从1994年开始选址，最终选定大窝凼洼地。

If the truth is out there, then some Chinese scientists are confident that the giant telescope will find it. The current largest operational radio telescope is the 300-meter-diameter Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, but FAST in Guizhou will far surpass that.

如果真的存在地外生命，一些中国科学家相信这座大型望远镜将会找到它。目前运行的最大射电望远镜在波多黎各阿雷西博天文台(Arecibo Observatory)，直径为300米，贵州的FAST将远远超过它。

Li Di, a chief scientist with the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Daily last year that “with a larger signal receiving area and more flexibility, FAST will be able to scan two times more sky area than Arecibo, with three to five times higher sensitivity.”

中国科学院国家天文台首席科学家李菂去年接受《中国日报》采访时表示，“FAST拥有较大的信号接收区，更具灵活性，探查的天空面积是阿雷西博的两倍多，精确度是它的三到五倍”。

Last November, scientists successfully tested the telescope’s “retina,” which weighs 33 tons and is suspended 460 to 525 feet above the reflector dish, which was half-finished at the time, China Daily reported.

《中国日报》报道称，去年11月，科学家们成功测试了该望远镜的“视网膜”，这一部分重达33吨，悬浮在反射器上方140米至160米处，当时还是半成品。

The telescope has 4,500 panels that are mostly triangular and whose sides measure 36 feet, the report said. Those create a parabolic shape. The panels move and, by doing so, alter the shape of the antenna, which is supposed to pick up radio signals from distant corners of the universe. Those signals would then be reflected to a focal point.

报道称该望远镜共有4500块面板，其中大部分是三角形，其边长约为11米。它们会形成一个抛物面。这些面板通过移动改变天线的形状，天线会接受来自宇宙偏远角落的无线电信号。然后信号会反射到一个焦点。

Mr. Li told China Daily that engineers were aiming to install all the panels by this June and complete debugging by September.

李菂告诉《中国日报》，工程师计划在今年6月前装完所有反射面板，9月底前完成所有调试工作。

“Ultimately, exploring the unknown is the nature of mankind,” he said, adding that it was “as visceral as feeding and clothing ourselves.”

“归根结底，探索未知是人类的本性，”他说，“就像吃饭穿衣一样自然”。

“It drives us to a greater future,” he said.

他说，“它将带领我们进入更广阔的未来。”