Jakarta (Antara/Xinhua) – Scientists have identified more than 500 new pulsars since October 2017 using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), also dubbed “China’s Eye of the Sky.” “.
Using FAST, scientists also detected a total of 1,652 independent bursts from a single repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source, codenamed FRB121102, explained Li Di, the telescope’s chief scientist and researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory under Chinese Academy of Sciences, on Thursday.
Pulsars, or rapidly spinning neutron stars, originate from the core of a large star that nearly died in a supernova explosion.
With their high density and fast rotation, pulsars make ideal laboratories for studying the laws of physics in extreme environments.
This is the largest series of FRB events ever detected in history, Li said, adding that the results were published in the journal Nature in October.
Scientists believe the findings could help clarify the origins of so-called “mysterious signals from deep space.”
Li said they have received about 200 submissions for observations from 16 countries since last March when FAST officially opened to the world.
Located in a naturally circular deep karst depression area in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, FAST officially started operations in January 2020. FAST is claimed to be the most sensitive radio telescope in the world.
Penerjemah: Wu Si, Cheng Lu, Qi Jian
Editor: Bayu Prasetyo
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