Acclaimed as the ‘eye of the sky,’ China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest filled-aperture and most sensitive radio telescope, has made significant strides in identifying more than 1,000 new pulsars, as reported by the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) recently.

FAST’s discoveries have outpaced the findings of all foreign telescopes combined during the same period. Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars formed from the collapsed cores of massive dying stars that have undergone supernova explosions. Each pulsar has its own pulse and rotation frequency, which could potentially serve as a navigational system for future interstellar travel by accurately tracking of their coordinates in the universe.

Construction of FAST began in March 2011, taking advantage of a natural karst depression in Guizhou Province. The telescope officially started operations in January 2020 and became accessible to the global scientific community in March 2021.

Looking ahead, FAST plans to improve its sensitivity and spatial resolution by adding auxiliary antennas. This upgrade aims to broaden its capabilities, enabling the discovery of more low-luminosity and distant pulsars.