The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment. Image credit: FACEBOOK/CHIMExperiment

November 04, 2022 – 6:00 am

A team of researchers trying to understand the nature of reality through a telescope in the South Okanagan have won an award that came with a quarter of a million dollar grant. The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment – or CHIME for short – was built in the hills southeast of Penticton to study the history of the universe, the nature of distant stars and the detection of gravitational waves. It became operational in 2017 and operates at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory which opened in 1960. CHIME was recently awarded the Brockhouse Canada Award for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. “Unlike traditional telescopes that mechanically point and observe a small region of the sky, this revolutionary technology forms an image of the entire sky every day by digitally processing information received in a compact array of 2048 radio receivers as the Earth rotates.” according to the awarding body. And now, thanks to a grant accompanying the award, the team of researchers has an additional $250,000 to work with. Funding for scientific endeavors often comes with strings attached – but the CHIME team of researchers is free to use that money as they see fit. “It allows you to do something inventive,” said Dr. Mark Halpern, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at the University of British Columbia.

“This allows us to think of a new idea and test it – it gives us the freedom to take a chance.” CHIME was built for the primary purpose of mapping the history of the expansion rate of the universe. READ MORE: CHIME telescope in South Okanagan helps detect space phenomena Halpern described it as a half-tube-like telescope for skateboarders. The instrument looks deep into space to measure hydrogen gas in distant galaxies that have been heavily affected by dark energy. It measures spherical shells called Baryon Acoustic Oscillations that were set in motion as early as 400,000 years after the Big Bang. “These shells are huge now – they can contain a million galaxies each,” he said. These spheres have continued to move for the past 13 billion years and now provide scientists with a “standard ruler for measuring the expansion rate” of the universe, according to the CHIME website. “It’s a complete gift for us,” Halpern said. Digital imaging is processed by computer “trucks” on site. But even after five years of data collection, he said the experiment is far from over. Although CHIME was built to analyze the expansion rate of the universe, its design also makes it a useful instrument for two other important uses – detecting fast radio bursts and measuring pulsars. Image credit: SUBMITTED/canada.ca

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