China's FAST Telescope May Detect Over 1,000 New Pulsars In 5-10 Years - Researcher

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2020) China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the largest one in the world, may detect over 1,000 new pulsars in the next five to 10 years, FAST senior researcher Li Di told the CCTV broadcaster.

A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits regular beams of electromagnetic radiation. Since the launch in 2016, FAST has found 114 new pulsars.

"We hope that in five to 10 years, it [FAST telescope] will be able to detect more than 1,000 new pulsars in a blind search," the scientist said.

Along with studying pulsars, the telescope's priority tasks include searching for extraterrestrial civilizations.

Li Di noted that FAST's sensitivity makes it possible to process powerful signals coming from possible extraterrestrial civilizations within a few hundred light-years.

The telescope is also equipped with a special digital terminal for high-speed and highly efficient sampling and research of the electromagnetic field of our Milky Way galaxy, the researcher added.

With the project first proposed back in 1994, the construction of the huge telescope began in 2011 and was completed in 2016. Located in the mountains of Pingtang county in southwestern Guizhou province, the 1.2 billion Yuan ($176 million at the current exchange rate) telescope is the size of 30 football fields.