Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is an interferometric radio telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia, Canada which consists of four antennas consisting of 100 x 20 metre cylindrical parabolic reflectors (roughly the size and shape of snowboarding half-pipes) 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. The telescope's low-noise amplifiers are built with components adapted from the cellphone industry and its data are processed using a custom-built FPGA electronic system and 1000-processor high-performance GPGPU cluster. The telescope has no moving parts and observes half of the sky each day as the Earth turns.
CHIME telescope | |
| Part of | Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory |
|---|---|
| Location(s) | Okanagan Falls, Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, British Columbia, Canada |
| Coordinates | 49°19′15″N 119°37′25″W |
| Organization | Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory McGill University University of British Columbia University of Toronto |
| Altitude | 545 m (1,788 ft) |
| Wavelength | 37 cm (810 MHz)–75 cm (400 MHz) |
| Built | 2015–August 2017 |
| First light | 7 September 2017 |
| Telescope style | radio telescope Zenith telescope |
| Number of telescopes | 4 |
| Diameter | |
| Length | 100 m (328 ft 1 in) |
| Width | 20 m (65 ft 7 in) |
| Collecting area | 8,000 m2 (86,000 sq ft) |
| Website | chime-experiment |
Location of Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment | |
| Related media on Commons | |
It has also turned out to be a great instrument for observing fast radio bursts (FRBs).
CHIME is a partnership between the University of British Columbia, McGill University, the University of Toronto and the Canadian National Research Council's Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory. A first light ceremony was held on 7 September 2017 to inaugurate the commissioning phase.