A giant Chinese telescope detected more than 900 new pulsars

A giant Chinese telescope detected more than 900 new pulsars

The Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, has identified more than 900 new pulsars since its launch in 2016, its operator said Wednesday.

Pulsars, or fast-spinning neutron stars, originate from the core of a star that dies massively in a supernova explosion.

Han Jinlin, a scientist at the National Astronomical Observatory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), said that the pulsars include more than 120 binary pulsars, more than 170 millisecond pulsars, and 80 faint and intermittent pulsars.

Han added that in the more than 50 years since the discovery of the first pulsar, less than 3,000 pulsars have been discovered worldwide, and the number of new pulsars discovered by FAST is more than three times the total number of pulsars discovered by foreign telescopes during the same period.

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“The study has important implications for understanding the dense remnants of dead stars in the Milky Way and their radiation characteristics,” Han said.

Pulsar observations are an important task for FAST, which can be used to confirm the existence of gravitational radiation and black holes and help find answers to many other key questions in physics.

Jiang Peng, FAST’s chief engineer, said all staff are doing their best to improve the telescope’s performance. Currently, the telescope’s annual observation time is about 5,300 hours, and it plays an important role in the continuous production of scientific research achievements.

Located in a deep, rounded karst depression in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, FAST began official operations in January 2020. It is believed to be the world’s most sensitive radio telescope.