Where is the diameter of the single port of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)?

The 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST) FAST very famous, which is also an epoch-making project in astronomy in recent years. Located in the deep mountains of Guizhou, the surrounding environment is very quiet, the air is fresh and silent. It can detect the farthest signal in the universe, even dating back to the moment of creation. Here is to share with you the diameter of the single port of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST).

What is the diameter of the single port of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)?

500 meters

Where is the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)?

In Dawodang karst cave in Pingtang County, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province

In the past two days, a scientific hotspot has been screened by everyone-that is, "six pulsars were discovered by the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)".

I didn't want to join in the fun, but think about it. After all, this is the transcript of FAST's first show. Plus there are readers who trust me privately, so finish reading it quickly. So in this issue, let's take a look at the unspoken/unclear gestures in mainstream news.

Let's talk about why FAST can be called "500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)". The full name of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (fast) is "500-meter spherical radio telescope" or FAST for short (people want FAST! ) This is based on the English full name The.

Five-fogotten-meteraperaturesphericalscope is formed by acronym.

This behemoth looks like a cauldron, with a total diameter of 500 meters (the exact value is 488 meters) and equipped with 4450 panels, which is about the size of 30 football fields. It takes 40 minutes to walk around the edge of the cauldron!

Therefore, people dare to say that they are the largest radio telescope in the world! More precisely, it is the largest single aperture and the most sensitive radio telescope.

Why is it so big? Why dare you say the most sensitive? You know, a radio telescope is like an antenna pot that receives satellite signals. The bigger the better! Because the larger the area, the stronger the receiving ability!

The cost of this giant pot is 654.38 USD +0.8 billion, which took five years to build, but it only took 654.38+0 years to officially open.

Because FAST needs an absolutely quiet environment, it is not only located in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in Dashan (Qiannan Prefecture), but also designated the area of 5 kilometers in Fiona Fang, Fiona Fang as a radio silent zone. Therefore, the relocation and resettlement of immigrants cost another $269 million.

This high price is a miracle of monitoring. FAST is better than Arecibo Observatory, which was built before.

The 300-meter telescope and the German Bonn 100-meter telescope, known as the "largest machine on the ground", have greatly improved their sensitivity and comprehensive performance.

How high is it?

For example, how the hydrogen atoms produced by BIGBANG are active, and FAST has the ability to monitor; Electromagnetic waves emitted by some organic molecules in the universe can also be monitored by others; If you encounter intelligent life, alien signals or something, it is even more important. Therefore, insiders call it "the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)".

After talking about the superb skills of FAST, let's talk about the "pulsar" discovered this time.

What is a pulsar? Pulsars are neutron stars that can rotate at high speed, but not all neutron stars are pulsars.

▲ The famous "Hand of God" (PSRB 1509-58) is actually a typical pulsar.

So what is a neutron star?

Simply put, all the stars in the universe can't escape three final destinations: white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.

Stars whose mass is _ 1.44 times that of the sun will become white dwarfs (which is also the destination of our sun);

A star with a mass of 1.5 ~ 3 times the mass of the sun will eventually collapse into a neutron star, so dense that even the nucleus can be crushed, leaving only neutrons, hence the name neutron star. A cube-sized substance on a neutron star has a mass of 1 100 million tons! What is this concept? It is equivalent to compressing the whole Mount Everest into a cube of sugar!

& gt A star with three times the mass of the sun will eventually become a black hole. It can be said that neutron star is the highest density celestial body except black hole in the universe. Together with black holes, it was praised by astronomers as one of the four major discoveries of astronomy in the 1960s!

Coincidentally, pulsar, a high-speed rotating neutron star, was also discovered in the1960s. However, what is even more surprising is that when it was first discovered, it was still considered as an alien signal!

What the hell is going on?

Exactly 50 years ago,1October 28th, 1967 165438, Professor hewish of Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University arranged for Jocelyn Bell, a master student, to watch the signals received by the radio telescope, which were actually a bunch of long paper tapes.

She happened to find that some pulse signals are sent very regularly, with a period of 1.337 seconds, just like a human pulse.

So she immediately reported to Professor hewish. Astronomers are so excited that their hearts will jump out-have I really discovered the legendary "alien little green men"? ! You know, throughout the 1960 s, the west was filled with the smell of space races and alien science fiction. This association is also natural.

Fortunately, scientists can hold their breath. In less than half a year, teachers and students have found several such pulse signals.

Later, I finally figured out that this strange "call signal" is not an alien signal, but a pulse signal from a special star-pulsar, which is only theoretically derived.

It must be interrupted here: 1974 The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to only one professor, because he completely ignored Bell's contribution when nominating, which became a major scandal in the history of science.

It was not until 1993 that Bell was specially invited by the Nobel Committee to attend the awarding ceremony for two American astronomers who won prizes for discovering pulse binary stars. Is this a kind of compensation? Or is it deliberately stimulating?

Fortunately, in the past 40 years, Bell has not only won the Nobel Prize, but also won more than a dozen world-class scientific awards.

After the episode, continue

Pulsars, like searchlights on lighthouses, are regularly launched into space. If it sweeps across the earth and happens to be intercepted by humans, this is the so-called pulsar signal.

The six pulsars newly discovered by FAST are actually behind this principle.

However, these six new pulsars are all in the Milky Way. At present, more than 2,700 pulsars have been discovered in the Milky Way. China has just started in this field.

The two published J/KOOC-0/859-0/KOOC-0/3/KOOC-0/and J/KOOC-0/93/KOOC-0/KOOC-0/are respectively light years away from us/KOOC-0/6000 and 4/KOOC-0/.

It is more valuable to study pulsars, which is an extreme physical environment and extremely wonderful.

In 1980s, astronomers began to discover millisecond pulsars, whose rotation period was only milliseconds.

10 years ago in 2007, ESA discovered the fastest pulsar so far, rotating 1 122 times per second!

In contrast, FAST's newly discovered 0.59 seconds and 1.83 seconds are nothing.

Why pay attention to the rotation period? What is the significance of studying pulsars? In fact, these two questions are both an answer. As I said just now, pulsars with extremely stable rotation periods are like accurate clocks in the universe. The shorter the rotation period, the more accurate the clock signal it can provide, and the greater the value of natural research. This is of great forward-looking significance for future deep space navigation-unmanned spacecraft for interstellar travel and manned space exploration.

In addition, pulsars are celestial bodies under extreme physical conditions, with extremely high density and strong magnetic field. In the eyes of astrophysicists, pulsars are ideal natural laboratories, which can extend many space exploration topics, such as detecting gravitational waves and black holes.

In any case, this is the first achievement of the national scientific heavyweight FAST, which is necessary, especially when it has just rushed out of the starting line.

Of course, this is also the best comfort for "the father of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)".

On September 15 this year, Nan, the main founder of the FAST project, passed away.

FAST is like raising a child by yourself. When the child got his excellent report card back, the old man had already left.