Australian astrophysicist Naomi McClure-Griffiths said that opening the spherical radio telescope with an aperture five hundred meters high to international scientists could improve the cooperation of scientists from different countries.
“The telescope is completely new. A lot of people want to use it, and there is a lot of competition to use the telescope, ”McClure-Griffiths said in an interview with Xinhua. “As we move into the future, I look forward to using it more.”
FAST is located in Guizhou province, southwest China. As the world’s largest and most sensitive aperture radio telescope, it was officially opened to the world on March 31.
Professor McClure-Griffiths is an astrophysicist and radio astronomer at the School of Astronomy and Research in Astrophysics at the Australian National University.
She told Xinhua that she went to (FAST) twice. “I was working in collaboration with a scientist who was the FAST Project scientist, Professor Lee Dee… and he took me to the telescope to show me how it works. We were discussing scientific projects that we could do there ”.
She praised the telescope as “an amazing feat of engineering.” The professor said: “It is an exceptional phenomenon.” “It is too big and incredible in structure.”
McClure-Griffiths discovered a new spiral arm in the Milky Way in 2004 and was awarded the Pawsey Medal by the Australian Academy of Sciences in 2015.
“I’m interested in how galaxies form and evolve, and I think that FAST with its sensitivity and ability to see fine details can photograph very small regions and allow us to look at our galaxy, for example, and study how it interacts. with its surrounding environment “.
FAST compared it to a bucket and said it’s good for studying hydrogen in the universe, the dominant element that makes up galaxies and shows how it works. “The reason FAST is so good at studying hydrogen is because it is a very large cube and it allows you to see the really weak parts of hydrogen that are between galaxies.”
FAST can also be used to detect pulsars. So far, FAST has found more than 300 pulsars, with the number expected to reach 1,000 in the next five years.
Professor McClure Griffiths said: “Pulsars are extremely compact stars that spin very quickly.” “They give off a very weak signal to radio broadcasts. So the higher your telescope is, the more likely you are to find them. “
Applications from domestic and foreign academics to use FAST will be evaluated by leading international experts, which according to the professor is good for international study and cooperation.
Already established in her career, she has collaborated with Chinese scientists and had the opportunity to visit and understand the telescope. “But for younger scientists who haven’t necessarily collaborated with Chinese astronomers yet, this (QUICK Opening for International Scientists) gives them an opportunity to get closer to the telescope and start building that collaboration and expanding their network.
McClure-Griffiths said he knows some teams in Australia who look for opportunities when they hit FAST.
“It will be really exciting to see the results of FAST in the coming years,” he said.
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