Browsing: CHIME

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is an innovative radio telescope located in British Columbia, Canada. Designed primarily to detect radio waves emitted by hydrogen gas in the universe, CHIME aims to map the large-scale structure of the universe over the expansive volume covering the period from 7 to 11 billion years ago. This is significant because it corresponds to the era when the universe was expanding at an accelerating rate, presumably due to dark energy. CHIME’s unique design features four large, semi-cylindrical reflectors, which give it a wide field of view to survey a large portion of the sky each day. In addition to its primary cosmological goals, CHIME is also adept at detecting fast radio bursts (FRBs), mysterious and powerful flashes of radio waves from space, providing key insights into their nature and origins.