China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, known as FAST, is the world’s most sensitive listening device. For the review to be successful, FAST must meet the specifications initially laid out in the proposed design in 2008, such as the telescope’s sensitivity and performance. NAOC ran an internal review earlier this year, demonstrating that the telescope is as – if not more – sensitive as planned.
The construction of FAST, while solely funded by the Chinese government, involved collaboration with international organizations, including Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, but exactly who in the international community will be able to use FAST – and to what extent – is still to be decided. While both LI and JIANG stressed the importance of international collaboration (they have both conducted research using data from radio telescopes in Australia and in Puerto Rico), the decision lies with the Chinese government.
That work could include the detection of pulsars, for example. When a giant star collapses in on itself, it forms a dense neutron star that rotates, flashing a beam of intense radiation every so often. The beam is called a pulsar, and it can’t be visually observed. However, because that flash is a radio signal, scientists can listen it for using a radio telescope like FAST. Once they detect a pulsar, they can use it to identify and measure the behavior of other physical phenomena, such as gravitational waves.
Picture Credit : Google
