中国天眼FAST成果颇丰，明年将向世界开放
自建成运营以来，FAST累计发现脉冲星数量超过240颗，基于FAST数据发表的高水平论文达到40余篇。FAST在快速射电暴方面的研究成果11月5日凌晨发表在国际科学期刊《自然》杂志上。
FAST的反射面面积与大约30个标准足球场相当，其首席科学家李菂表示，如果把它全部装上米饭，全世界每个人大概可以分到两碗。
FAST的灵敏度为全球第二大单口径射电望远镜的2.5倍以上，超高灵敏度使其在射电瞬变源方面具有重大潜力，有望在短时间内实现纳赫兹的引力波探测、捕捉到宇宙大爆炸时期的原初引力波，为研究宇宙大爆炸原初时刻的物理过程提供数据支撑。
China will open its Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, to global scientists next year for research work, said the National Astronomical Observatories (NAO) on Thursday.
The observatory, which began full operation in January 2020 after passing a series of technical and performance assessments, has the highest sensitivity to detect cosmic phenomena.
It's 2.5 times more sensitive than Puerto Rico's 305-meter-diameter Arecibo telescope, which holds the second spot.
It has identified more than 240 pulsars – super dense stars that emit electromagnetic beams at precise intervals.
Pulsars are a popular research subject as the "cosmic lighthouses" allow scientists to study extreme states of matter, measure cosmic distances and track time in an ultra-precise way.
Based on the data collected by FAST, scientists have published over 40 quality papers. With the help of the advanced telescope, Chinese research teams have become a key force in studying fast radio bursts, which are extremely short but powerful flashes in the sky.
"Fast radio bursts are one of the frontiers in astronomy because they are full of interesting questions to be answered," said Han Jinlin, a chief researcher at the NAO.
Researchers from the NAO used FAST to observe a repetitive fast radio burst called FRB180301 and found various "polarization angle swings", which gives an insight into the origin of fast radio bursts. The research was published in the journal Nature in October.
FAST has immense potential to detect fast radio bursts and gravitational waves, providing data support for research into the physical process of the Big Bang, according to experts at the NAO.