Panorama of "China Sky Eye" in the morning light (drone photo, taken during maintenance on July 25, 2022). Xinhua News Agency data map

From August 26th to 27th, the Second Gathering Qingke Approaching China Tianyan Innovation Forum was held in Pingtang, Guizhou. Jiang Peng, chief engineer of the 500-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (“FAST” for short), said at the forum that in stable operation and improved performance, the future survey efficiency of FAST will achieve an order of magnitude improvement, and use FAST to solve the core of China’s radio astronomy field. technical problem.

Known as "China's Sky Eye", FAST was inaugurated in Pingtang, Guizhou on September 25, 2016. It is currently the world's largest and most sensitive single-aperture radio telescope. The data shows that FAST has been running for 6,200 hours a year since its acceptance. Its excellent performance and stable operation have spawned a series of scientific achievements with international influence.

Jiang Peng said that due to the late start of the field of radio astronomy in China, the core key problems in the field of radio astronomy are mainly in the receiver. In the future, the FAST platform will be used, combined with the efforts of the technology research and development team, to strive to solve the core technology within 5 years. problem, develop advanced receiver systems.

Up to now, FAST has discovered more than 660 pulsars, and more than 100 high-level papers have been published based on FAST observation data. FAST's high-sensitivity observations also found repeating FRBs and polarization angle changes, revealing that FRBs originate from magnetars in the distant universe.

It is understood that FAST has carried out the development of pulsar timing system and advanced receiver system. In the future, FAST will also conduct in-depth scientific research on pulsar search, fast radio bursts, neutral hydrogen patrol, interstellar formation and gravitational wave detection.

(Original title "Chief Engineer of "China Sky Eye": FAST will be used to solve core technical problems in the field of radio astronomy")