China's largest domestically developed near-earth objects telescope had been installed last month in Jiangsu Province and will soon be put into operation.

The world's fifth largest near-earth objects telescope, equipped with a state of the art monitoring system, is able to automatically search and calculate the position of near-earth comets and minor planets to determine their exact orbit.

Experts say in the next 20 years the telescope could help to find 500 to 1,000 minor celestial bodies that cross the earth's orbit that are likely bring disasters to the earth.

(CRI November 8, 2004)