FAST telescope detects over 156,000 neutral hydrogen sources

China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) has completed a major survey, detecting 156,411 neutral hydrogen sources across nearly half the sky. The findings, published in the journal Science China Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy, establish the FAST All-Sky H I Survey (FASHI) as a new global reference for mapping the gas that fuels star and galaxy formation.

The survey contains nearly five times the number of extragalactic sources detected by the former Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico. By covering approximately three times more sky than the previous landmark US ALFALFA survey, FAST has identified galaxies that are smaller, fainter, and more distant.

Researchers from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences state that this data set will help scientists investigate cosmic structures, dark matter distribution, and the evolution of galaxies. The findings are expected to bridge the gap between current research and future projects like the Square Kilometre Array being developed in Australia and South Africa.