Construction has started on Canada’s largest radio telescope, the first of its kind to be built in the country in more than 30 years.
The $11 million research telescope, known as the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity-Mapping Experiment (CHIME), is being built at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) in Penticton, B.C.
Once completed, the telescope will be larger than six NHL hockey rinks and will “listen” for cosmic sound waves to help scientists understand why the universe has been expanding so rapidly in recent years.
“It’s a way to inexpensively survey large volumes of the universe,” says Kris Sigurdson, one of the lead investigators.
“The goal there is to make a three-dimensional map of the universe, and we want to use that to measure how fast the universe has been expanding over the course of its history.”
The telescope boasts a 100-metre by 100-metre collecting area filled with 2,560 low-noise receivers. Built with components adapted from the cellphone industry, the telescope will scan half the sky every day and will map 25 percent of the observable universe within five years.
