A 9-billion-year-old signal could help explain dark energy
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has successfully detected faint radio signals from hydrogen gas in the distant universe. This new observation method provides a cost-effective way to study dark energy and the expansion of the universe.
Why it matters
Advancing our understanding of dark energy is critical to solving fundamental mysteries regarding the evolution and structure of the cosmos.
For the first time, the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has demonstrated that it can detect the extremely faint radio glow of hydrogen gas from the distant universe using only its own observations.
The result could give scientists a faster and less costly way to investigate dark energy, the still mysterious phenomenon believed to be accelerating the expansion of the universe. Understanding dark energy remains one of the biggest unresolved problems in modern physics. The achievement is also an important milestone for CHIME, which was originally designed with this type of measurement in mind. The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal .
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