Scientists map earliest glow of hydrogen, opening a new window to the universe

An international collaboration involving researchers from India's Raman Research Institute has used the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope to make its first standalone detection of the glow of hydrogen from when the universe was about five billion years old. Published in The Astrophysical Journal, the breakthrough demonstrates that the CHIME interferometric radio telescope can detect faint hydrogen emissions using only its own data. This achievement provides a new, less expensive method to investigate cosmic expansion, galaxy formation and evolution, and dark energy without relying on external galaxy survey data.