GUIYANG: China’s 500-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, has identified more than eight hundred new pulsars since its launch in 2016, its operator revealed on Tuesday.
The number of new pulsars the FAST discovered is three times high than the total tally of pulsars identified by foreign telescopes in the corresponding period, Xinhua reported citing the chief engineer of the telescope Jiang Peng.
Pulsars, or fast-spinning neutron stars, originate from the imploded cores of very huge dying stars through supernova explosions.
Importance of China’s FAST
Pulsar observation is a key task for FAST, which could be used to confirm the existence of black holes and gravitational radiation and help find answers to many other big questions in physics.
In recent years, FAST has achieved considerable success in the study of neutral hydrogen, fast radio bursts, and pulsars, nicely expanding the scope of the human exploration of the universe.
