China’s FAST Telescope Identifies Over 1,000 Pulsars.

Guizhou: China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest filled-aperture and most sensitive radio telescope, has identified more than 1,000 new pulsars. The number of new pulsars discovered by FAST has surpassed that of all foreign telescopes combined during the same period, according to the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC). According to Qatar News Agency, pulsars, or fast-spinning neutron stars, originate from the imploded cores of massive dying stars through supernova explosions. Han Jinlin, a scientist at NAOC, explained that each pulsar has its own pulse and rotation frequency, likening them to lighthouses in the universe. If human beings can travel to other planets in the future, these pulsars could serve as a navigation system. "We can accurately measure the coordinates of pulsars in the universe and monitor the phase positions of pulsar signals and their corresponding position relations, so humans do not get lost during interstellar travel," Han elaborated. The pulsars identified by FAST include many binary and millisecond pulsars, enhancing both the variety and number of pulsars studied, and contributing to human understanding of their formation and evolution. The telescope, located in a naturally deep and round karst depression in southwest China's Guizhou Province, has a reception area equal to 30 standard football fields. FAST commenced formal operations in January 2020 and was officially opened to the world in March 2021.