(Yicai Global) June 29 -- Chinese scientists have found key evidence for nanohertz gravitational waves, or space-time ripples, using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, know as FAST or China's ‘Sky Eye,’ making the country a world leader in the field.

A team led by the National Astronomical Observatories of China under the Chinese Academy of Science detected the evidence based on pulsar timing observations using FAST, the CAS said on its website today. The team systematically monitored 57 millisecond pulsars in the Milky Way galaxy and collected data spanning three years and five months for analysis and research, it added

Gravitational waves, a concept Albert Einstein predicted in his general theory of relativity published in 1915, refer to the disturbances massive objects such as black holes make as they move through spacetime. Almost a century later, in 2016, the US’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory detected gravitational waves for the first time.

FAST, which is based in China's southwestern Guizhou province, became operational in January 2020 and is the world's largest spherical radio telescope by diameter. 

Nanohertz or low-frequency gravitational waves open a key window for observing the universe, enabling researchers to study major problems in astrophysics, including the formation, evolution, and merger of black holes and galaxies, and the universe's early-stage structure, China Central Television News reported today, citing NAOC Director Chang Jin.

The team will next open up new scientific directions by focusing on the nanohertz gravitational waves to keep China's world-leading position in low-frequency radio astronomy, Chang added.

An extremely low-frequency disturbance, nanohertz gravitational waves are hard to spot because their frequency is 10 to the negative power of nine hertz. The only way to detect then is through long-term observations of millisecond pulsars with large radio telescopes.

Editor: Martin Kadiev