CHIME telescope yields unprecedented results

Scientists have assembled the largest collection of fast radio bursts (FRBs) in the telescope’s first FRB catalogue with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) Collaboration, which include researchers at the Pune-based Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA).

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CHIME is an interferometric radio telescope. It is located in British Columbia, Canada.

It consists of four antennas consisting of 100 x 20 metre cylindrical parabolic reflectors with 1024 dual-polarization radio receivers suspended on a support above them.

The antenna receives radio waves from hydrogen in space at frequencies in the 400–800 MHz range.

While catching sight of an FRB is considered a rare thing in the field of radio astronomy, prior to the CHIME project, radio astronomers had only caught sight of around 140 bursts in their scopes since the first FRB was spotted in 2007.