CHIME detects faint hydrogen glow from distant universe on its own

The CHIME radio telescope in British Columbia has for the first time detected the faint radio glow of hydrogen from the distant universe using only its own observations. The result offers a cheaper way to probe dark energy: the signal came from hydrogen when the universe was about 5 billion years old, based on 94 nights of 2019 data.

• Signal based on 94 nights of observations from 2019
• Hydrogen seen when the universe was about 5 billion years old
• Roughly 2% of hydrogen was then in neutral atomic form
• Method is cheaper than galaxy surveys and needs no outside data