No aliens found yet, but 'heartbeats' in universe heard

Pulsar-searching club

The first two confirmed pulsars discovered by FAST were detected on the nights of Aug 22 and 25 respectively. But Li couldn't recall the scene exactly as FAST has already found dozens of pulsar candidates thanks to its high sensitivity.

"As a matter of fact, we can detect high-quality pulsar candidates almost every night," says Li.

When the first pulsar was discovered half a century ago, China was still struggling in poverty and turmoil. As a result, none of the previous more than 2,700 discoveries of pulsars was made by China.

But now, as China builds a well-off society, it has the capability to explore the strange and mysterious celestial bodies, and endeavor to answer those ultimate questions: How was the universe created? Where did we come from? Are we lonely in the universe?

For Chinese astronomers to lead in global astronomy, they must have advanced astronomical instruments. The completion of FAST, the largest astronomical construction in Chinese history, cost about 1.2 billion yuan ($182 million), more than 20 years and tremendous efforts of the scientists and engineers.

Now, China is in the pulsar-searching club.

Li predicted that after it starts formal operation in 2019, FAST will be able to find over a hundred pulsars per year. The telescope is expected to discover twice the number of pulsars currently known.

It is also expected to find 50 to 80 pulsars in M31, the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. It is the only radio telescope in the world with this capability.

A new era

Li, who did research at the California Institute of Technology and NASA in the United States, returned to China in 2012 for the construction of FAST, joining the long and heroic efforts led by Chinese scientist Nan Rendong. In the remote valley in Guizhou, he lived in the barracklike housing without even a bathroom for several years.

"Scientific research is the process of seeking truth. Like detective work, painting or building furniture, you might encounter many obstacles on the way, but you will also see gradual progress, and finally get something that is incredibly important or beautiful. The more bitter the hardship, the sweeter the happiness," says Li.

This year is momentous for China' s astronomical community. On June 15, China' s space telescope, the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), was launched to detect black holes and pulsars. The initiator of the satellite is Li Tipei, a renowned astrophysicist and academician of the CAS.

"In modern history, China has lagged behind in the world, and it is the hope of our generation to put China at the forefront of the global natural science community," says Li Tipei.

Li Di says FAST takes in the past and brings about the future. "The era of systematic pulsar research with Chinese telescope has just started. We hope to make the telescope an important scientific instrument of mankind."

A multi-beam receiver will be installed on FAST to survey space with multiple scientific objectives. That means it can obtain data on pulsars, celestial spectrums and fast radio bursts in one scan. Through this original technique, scientists will be able to find more than 1,000 pulsars, over 100,000 galaxies and dozens of fast radio bursts.

"We will rely on self-innovative equipment and advanced observation methods to make systematic scientific discoveries." Li says. "It will be the dawn of a new era."

"For human beings, exploring the unknown and satisfying curiosity is an equally essential right as eating and sleeping. Exploration of the unknown will inspire human creativity, enabling us to make unprecedented achievements and find imaginative solutions, which is extremely valuable."