China's FAST telescope identifies 43 pulsars

File photo shows the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in southwest China's Guizhou Province. [Photo: Chinanews.com]

China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, has discovered 43 new pulsars so far since its trial operation began in September 2016, the research team announced on Thursday.

A pulsar is a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star, which emits two beams of electromagnetic radiation.

Located in a naturally deep and round karst depression in southwest China's Guizhou Province, FAST is believed to be the world's most sensitive radio telescope.

Pulsar observation is an important task for FAST, which can be used to confirm the existence of gravitational radiation and black holes and help solve many other major questions in physics. 

FAST is also in charge of the exploration of interstellar molecules and interstellar communication signals.