The Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) will probably start searching for aliens next year, according to Zhu Bobin, an employee at the Guizhou Geological Science and Technology Park, in a statement on Nov 16.

FAST will be inspected by the national authority in the first half of next year and will begin searching for aliens later in the year, Zhu said.

As the chief engineer of the FAST engineering site and observation base system, Zhu said that the search for aliens should first be carried out around the Milky Way, which contains many planets such as Mars, Saturn, etc. He believes that planets have the potential to support life. "Aliens may live on a planet around the solar system," he said.

After two years of operation, FAST has found 62 pulsars, 54 of which have been confirmed. A pulsar is a rotating neutron star that was first discovered in 1967. They are called pulsars because they constantly emit electromagnetic pulse signals.

The number of pulsars it has found suggests that FAST is performing excellently and provides confidence for subsequent astronomical observations.

FAST can receive electromagnetic signals beyond 13.7 billion light-years away and its range of observation reaches the edge of the universe.

If the universe really has highly civilized and intelligent alien creatures, they will emit electromagnetic signals like humans. "If there is an extraterrestrial civilization signaling the earth, FAST will be the most likely to receive it because it has the largest receiving area on earth," Zhu added.

An aerial view of FAST. [Photo by Ou Dongqu/xinhuanet.com]