Crikey, that's FAST: China clocks 84 pulsars in 2 years using world's largest radio telescope

The world's largest single-dish radio telescope, an enormous white circle half a kilometre in diameter, has helped scientists uncover 84 new pulsars since it began collecting data two years ago. Jiang Peng, chief engineer at the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in Guizhou Province, southwest China, …

[Blockchain commentard]

Frequency range also means they can pick up FM radio stations from anywhere in the world (and beyond!!). Wonder if I can get local planning permission for that kind of aerial :-)

[Tigra 07]

RE: Blockchain

Mount it to one of those colourful plastic kids slides in your back garden and you can plausibly deny that it's a permanent structure when the Council come knocking.

[Korev]

Popping one in my office would finally give me a semi-decent signal...

[Tigra 07]

RE: Korev

You're on the 3 network?

[Aladdin Sane]

So they managed to find somebody to run the place then?

[KittenHuffer]

In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

In the early days of pulsar discovery it was hoped that pulsars would be a useful way to find your way around the galaxy. The golden discs on the Voyager spacecraft actually contain pulsar maps that can be used to identify the location of our solar system.

Unfortunately, it is now known that pulsars precess over time and the area of space swept by their radio beams changes. This means that by the time (40k+ years) any LGM get their hands on those discs they will be useless as a way of finding the remains of our civilisation.

Though even if they could find our solar system they’d probably just find TWO Venus like planets amongst the rocky worlds of the inner system.

[KittenHuffer]

Re: In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

Now that's a down vote that I really don't understand.

I suppose it could be from one of the "Global warming is fake news!" crowd. But then if they're smart enough to have spotted that tucked away in my comment I'd have thought they were smart enough to realise it's real.

Anybody else have any ideas what I did or said to offend?

[Aladdin Sane]

Re: In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

There are some people who'll downvote you just because you've commented.

[KittenHuffer]

Re: In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

I suppose the haters gotta hate!

[Wellyboot]

Re: In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

This is an interweb forum, our simple existence as commentards will cause offence under some rocks.

edit: started this, got distracted and Aladdin beat me to the post.

[Christoph]

Re: In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

I very frequently get single downvotes for entirely innocuous comments.

There seems to be at least one person who gets their kicks by random downvotes.

[Evil Auditor]

Re: In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

It's just the reader from Down Under. As any fule kno everything is reversed down there. That downvote is actually an upvote from an Aussie. Ask dropbear for it must kno.

[Toni the terrible]

Re: In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

...and random up votes too

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

Probably someone who didn't like your AGW comment at the end.

[Spherical Cow]

Re: In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

There may be a downvote bot.

[Toni the terrible]

Re: In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

Good, I am relieved. Always thought that telling ET where we are was a ever so large mistake

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: In one way pulsars are not the great hope they used to be

In reality, ET is going to be governed by the same limits and laws of physics as we are.

With no access to FTL travel, they will stop their plans of world domination, when they realise it's hard to drop tactical nukes that don't also take out our KFC supplies. After 1000s of years, the'd be desperate for a quick snack!

We always suspected there to be a reason KFC is both so greatly desired, yet so rarely found. They only place them outside strategic locations. ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

Not very exciting, let me know when ET picks up the phone.

It also hold the record as the World's biggest wok

[Christoph]

It's stuffed full of electronics.

So it's an e-Wok.

[ACcc]

Acronym

Anyone else have the sneaking suspicion that they only added the word 'Spherical' to the acronym when someone pointed out what is spelt out without it?

Mine's the one with the gas mask in the pocket ->

[W.S.Gosset]

Re: Acronym

Many moons ago, a chap I knew at uni was with engineering in the Victorian railways and did a big presentation on the then-proposed high-speed link between Melbourne & Sydney. As a laugh, his team presented it under, and suggested, the title Fast Alternative Rail Transport.

Unfortunately, the senior managers (A) didn't get it, (B) loved the name.

... He had to take them aside later and gently point out what its acronym was.

[Stoneshop]

Re: Acronym

As a laugh, his team presented it under, and suggested, the title Fast Alternative Rail Transport.

Back in the day, DEC had a moniker for a certain range of systems: Reliability, Adaptability, Maintainability and Performance, so RAMP.

That didn't go well[0] when Sales came visiting at Philips Eindhoven.

[0] nl: ramp --> en: disaster

[IGotOut]

Quick

We need some of this pulsars and if we can't get them we need to stop the Chinese having access to them. Got it, we'll make it a national security issue.....

[Sanctimonious Prick]

Re: Quick

Trump: right! Stop selling China radio frequencies. That'll work.

[spold]

Re: Quick

Many Chinese books and documents show that the pulsars have always belonged to China.

;-)