World Tibet Network News Monday, June 8th, 1998

BEIJING, June 8 (AFP) - China has started preparations for an observatory on the high Tibetan plateau which will conduct research normally limited to satellites and space stations, the China Daily reported Monday.

"One of the observatory's main objectives is to study the Milky Way, and gamma ray eruptions at the start of the 21st century," said Tan Youheng, research fellow at the High-Energy Physics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

At an altitude of 4,300 metres (14,200 feet), the observatory will use Japanese and Italalian technology and install solar-neutron monitors and solar-neutron telescopes. It will be sited at Yangbajan.

The project is due to be completed in 2002.