Chinese astronomers have unveiled the mysterious origins of a young pulsar located in the Milky Way's halo, providing compelling observational evidence for the study of such objects' formation. The study was conducted by a team from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences。

A research team led by Prof. WANG Na from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has conducted in-depth observations of the millisecond pulsar PSR J0435+3233 using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The team found that PSR J0435+3233 has a high spin-down rate—two orders of magnitude greater than that of any other known millisecond pulsar in the Milky Way.

Through studying the observation data of China's gigantic radio telescope located in the country's southwestern Guizhou Province, an international research team has uncovered compelling new evidence supporting a binary-system origin for at least some fast radio bursts (FRBs), one of the most enigmatic phenomena in modern astrophysics.

On May 23, 2025, an latest research achievement by Chinese scientists was published online in the international academic journal “Science”. The research team from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered a rare millisecond pulsar by China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST). It orbits with its companion star in a period of 3.6 hours, and is eclipsed by the companion star for one-sixth of the time (i.e., an eclipse, similar to a solar or lunar eclipse). This discovery is of great significance for the study of stellar evolution theory, compact star accretion physics, and the gravitational wave source of binary mergers .

Fast radio burst (FRB) is a mysterious radio burst that lasts only a few milliseconds, the study of its origin is a hot topic in astrophysics. The research team made observations with FAST reveals the new physics of millisecond radio bursts in the universe. Two research results on FRB detection were published in the international scientific journal Nature in succession. This is the first time that a completely independent achievement based on the data of China's ground-based telescopes were published on this top journal.

Relying on the advantages of FAST's high sampling rate and detection sensitivity, a research team has carried out high-precision observations of radio continuum spectrum variation and polarization for GRS1915+105 for the first time, and discovered a faint radio pulse in the black hole. This achievement is the first international observation of sub second level low-frequency radio quasi periodic oscillations in micro quasars. It reveals the complex dynamic characteristics of black hole jets. It opens a new window for radio observations and theoretical studies of black holes. This achievement was published in the Nature magazine in July 2023.

The research team used the FAST telescope to collect pulsar timing data for 3 years and 5 months and found evidence for nanohertz gravitational waves. A statistical significance of spatial quadrupole correlation at 4.6 sigma level (false alarm rate less than 0.000002) was obtained near the nanohertz. This is the crucial evidence for nanohertz gravitational waves. The Chinese research team and four other international teams reported this result simultaneously. It indicates that we have achieved a significant breakthrough in sync with the international community. This achievement was published in July 2023 on Astronomy and Astrophysics Research and was selected as one of the top ten scientific breakthroughs in 2023 by the Science magazine.

Spider pulsars are important for studying the evolution of binary stars, but the understanding of their evolution is limited to theoretical predictions. Using FAST's ultra-high sensitivity and strong detection capabilities, a research team has found a pulsar binary system with the shortest period so far. Afterwards, they proved that the spider pulsar binary is in a critical state of transition from a "red backed spider" to a "black widow". It fills the crucial evidence gap in the evolution process of such binary systems. This achievement was published on Nature in June 2023.

The world's first sustained active FRB 20190520B was observed and monitored for 17 months by FAST, together with the Green Bank Telescope in the US and the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australian. The research team detected multiple bursts of FRB 20190520. By analyzing the polarization properties of the burst signal, the team found that its Faraday rotation had two drastic changes in positive and negative values. It reveals magnetic field reversal around repeated FRBs. This achievement was published on Science in May 2023.

The research team make an imaging study of the famous compact galaxy group "Stephen Quintuple" and the hydrogen atom gas in the surrounding sky area using FAST. They found a huge atomic gas system with a scale of about 2 million light-years, 20 times larger than our Milky Way. This is the largest atomic gas system detected in the universe so far. FAST's high sensitivity brings unprecedented ability to detect extremely dim object. The result was published in Nature on October 19.