CHIME has detected the faint radio signal from distant neutral hydrogen using its own observations, without relying on a galaxy survey to make the detection. The result is a technical milestone that gives researchers another way to investigate how the universe expanded—and, in turn, dark energy. It does not explain dark energy or deliver a new definitive value for the universe’s expansion rate.
What did CHIME detect?
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) reported a standalone detection of radio emission from neutral hydrogen in the distant universe. The analysis used observations from 94 nights in 2019; the University of British Columbia’s September 28, 2026 announcement describes the signal as coming from a time when the universe was about five billion years old. The team’s result was published in The Astrophysical Journal on that date, according to the announcement. Read the University of British Columbia announcement hosted by MIT Kavli Institute.
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Hydrogen is the universe’s most common element. Its faint radio emission can serve as a tracer of how matter is distributed through space. Co-author Arnab Chakraborty described it this way: “Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and the raw material from which stars form. Its faint radio emission acts like a cosmic tracer, revealing how matter is distributed across space.”
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesCo-author Shabbir Shaikh said the data indicate that roughly two per cent of hydrogen was in neutral atomic form at the observed time, broadly consistent with other measurements. That percentage describes hydrogen’s state—not dark energy’s share of the universe and not the rate of cosmic expansion.
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How does CHIME study dark energy?
CHIME maps the distribution of neutral hydrogen across cosmic time. The instrument is a drift-scan radio telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory near Penticton, British Columbia. Its design covers 400–800 MHz and uses four parallel cylindrical reflectors, each 100 by 20 metres. The collaboration describes its intended hydrogen-mapping range as redshift 0.8 to 2.5, a span of the universe’s expansion history. The CHIME Collaboration’s instrument overview explains the telescope’s design.
By mapping where matter lies at different epochs, researchers can study how cosmic structure developed and test models of expansion. Those tests can help constrain dark energy, the name given to whatever is driving the universe’s accelerated expansion. CHIME does not directly identify dark energy; it provides observations that can help researchers investigate its effects.
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Why is a standalone hydrogen detection significant?
Earlier CHIME work relied on cross-correlating radio observations with data from galaxy surveys. This result demonstrates that CHIME’s hydrogen signal can be detected from its own observations, creating an independent route for this kind of analysis rather than requiring external galaxy-survey data for the detection.
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The distinction matters because galaxy surveys trace galaxies and their light, while intensity mapping uses the combined radio emission of hydrogen across a broad volume. The UBC announcement characterizes CHIME’s approach as potentially reaching a broader volume and earlier epochs at a fraction of the cost of galaxy surveys, which it says cost millions more dollars and focus on star-forming regions. Those are qualitative comparisons in the announcement, not a quantified head-to-head assessment of cost, sensitivity or precision.
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How did the team check the result?
The hydrogen signal is faint compared with foreground radio emission, human-made interference and effects from the instrument itself. Separating those sources required new processing methods. Researchers say they spent more than a year testing whether the detection could be a false alarm. Co-author Arnab Chakraborty said: “We worked very hard to convince ourselves that this wasn’t a false alarm,”
The published announcement does not provide the detection’s statistical significance or full uncertainty budget. It therefore supports calling this a detection and method milestone, but not assigning it a specific confidence level or claiming a particular precision for expansion measurements.
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What happens next?
The 94 observing nights used for this result represent only a small fraction of nearly seven years of observations available to CHIME researchers, according to the UBC announcement. The team plans to analyze more of that accumulated data, including observations that can probe earlier periods of cosmic history. More data could help establish how broadly the standalone method can be applied; this first result alone does not settle the nature of dark energy.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11CHIME principal investigator Mark Halpern called it “a completely new technique for probing the cosmos, delivered by an instrument that was conceived, built and funded by Canadians.” The Dunlap Institute’s announcement also describes the result.
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