The second-largest economy in the world has announced that it will open the FAST telescope to the world in April 2021.
According to China’s Global Times, the country will open its 500-meter telescope to the global scientific community on the first day of April.
It is called the “Sky Eye” and it is the world’s largest Aperture Spherical radio Telescope otherwise known as FAST. The use of the telescope includes spotting pulsars and other energetic astronomical targets. Occasionally, it will also be used to spot or look for alien life.
A popular Chinese news agency claims that foreign scientists will be able to submit applications to China’s National Astronomical Observatories online. The review period may last up to August 1st when observation times will be given out. About ten percent of the observation time will be devoted to global astronomers in 2024, said FAST’s chief engineer, Jiang Peng.
The telescope has been in use for years and it was officially put to work on the 11th day of January 2020.observations had started before that time, in which the telescope did a few positive jobs by locating or imaging 240 pulsars. One of the most important pulsars was found inside the Messier 92 star cluster.
It is referred to as a millisecond pulsar that spins much faster than normal ones. It could spin at an incredible 316.5 rotations per second. That speed is about 18.990 RPM. At the time it spins, it sucks in and ejects matter from its companion star.
Another telescope that can do the things FAST does was the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico. It is the one that US National Science Foundation said it would tear down, but Puerto Rico has pledged in aid to have it rebuilt.
