Chinas 500-meter FAST radio telescope is now operational

The world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope is officially open for business, according to Xinhua, China's official state-run media. The FAST Radio Telescope saw first light in 2016, but has been undergoing testing and commissioning since then. FAST stands for Five-hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope.

FAST's nickname is Tianyan, which means "Eye of the Sky" or "Eye of Heaven." It's built in a natural depression in Guizhou, Southwest China. Among other things, its scientific goals are to study pulsars. FAST has already discovered two of those, in August 2017.

FAST's name is not exactly accurate. Though it does have a 500 meter diameter, only 300 meters of it is used at any one time. The telescope is active and can change so that one 300 meter segment is focused on the receiver.

According to Xinhua, all the technical indicators from FAST are meeting or exceeding planned levels. FAST is a powerful radio telescope, and scientists think it will make some major discoveries, especially in its first couple of years.
FAST's science goals include:

Large scale neutral hydrogen survey.
Pulsar observations
Leading the international very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) network
Detection of interstellar molecules
Detect interstellar communication signals
Pulsar timing array

FAST will also perform two sky surveys, which will take about five years. It'll take another 10 years just to analyze all that data. Still, there's room for flexibility in the telescope's operational schedule to pursue any surprises that come up. The surveys will take up about half of the telescope's observing time, leaving room for objectives like searching for exoplanets with magnetic fields, which are probably crucial for life.

FAST's power is already clear to astronomers. The telescope discovered two new pulsars in August 2017. In fact, the telescope has discovered 102 pulsars in just over two years. XINHUA is happy to point out in their press release that this is more than the total number of pulsars discovered by researchers in the US and Europe during the same time period.