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The Astronomer Who Is Building the Largest Map of Space by Volume (vice.com)

Posted by msmash on from the next-frontier dept.

An anonymous reader shares a Motherboard report: Astronomer Mark Halpern doesn't come into work every day thinking about the fact that he is leading a team that is creating the biggest map of the universe by volume ever made. But that ambition drives his research. An professor at the University of British Columbia, Halpern is also the principal investigator of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, or CHIME for short, based at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in Penticton, BC. The experiment is a collaboration between UBC, the University of Toronto, McGill, and the National Research Council of Canada. Its centerpiece is a massive halfpipe-shaped telescope that collects radio signals to detect hydrogen intensity, which is a measure of how much hydrogen is clustered in the universe, and if it has moved or spread out. The researchers can then analyse the spread of hydrogen in the universe to determine how much -- and how quickly -- the universe is expanding. "If I make a sound somewhere, it travels away from that sound in a spherical shell," Halpern said. "So we're going to map these big spherical shells as a function of distance from us, and by comparing their present speed to how big they look, that comparison tells us the expansion history of the universe."


26 comments

  1. Link? by Sigvatr · · Score: 1, Insightful

    There are no links in this article. That's bad.

    1. Re:Link? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean the one in the headline?

    2. Re:Link? by Sigvatr · · Score: 1

      One has been edited in now. Just trying to help.

    3. Re:Link? by msmash · · Score: 1

      Thanks, appreciate it.

  2. Map of space? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Space" is the void in which there is nothing. I would imagine a map of it to be a bit stark.

    1. Re:Map of space? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was at a quiz a while back. The question is "what word that starts with a V mean empty space".......

      I wrote Void but the stupid quiz master said it was wrong and said Vacuum was the correct word. I beg to differ I said, if you stick an apple in a glass container and sucked the air out to create a Vacuum then the Apple is still there. Fudgenudger I called him

    2. Re:Map of space? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your "quiz master" is an idiot.

      At best, your answer was more correct. At worst, your answer is a synonym that qualifies and hence is equally correct.

      Truly stupid people are too stupid to realize their own stupidity, even when it is pointed out to them. And many of them wind up as teachers.

    3. Re:Map of space? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly! This is a feature not a bug of the "teach the test" mentality. It is also the reason I am no longer a California school teacher. Primarily caring about gaming the test is a horrible way to educate. Perhaps tests have their uses, but being wrong sometimes is far more conductive to real life learning than always spitting out the "right" answer without understanding how you got to it.

  3. Scale? by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

    If it's 1:1 he's gonna need something bigger than the production floor at Hyperspacial Engineering...
    https://vimeo.com/109836809

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    1. Re:Scale? by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      I hope they don't try to print it. Even at the scale of 1 inch = 1 parsec, that map would be a mother to fold and put back in the glove compartment!

    2. Re:Scale? by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      Oh, but think of all the Staples Rewards earned buying the ink refills!

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  4. it already exists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it's called the universe.

  5. Re:What good does that do? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    What the heck? Is this AI? Gibberish.

  6. Re:What good does that do? by olsmeister · · Score: 1

    Big 'A' little 'i'.

  7. Re:What good does that do? by PvtVoid · · Score: 1

    Also, have you ever _really_ looked at your hand?

  8. The Universe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Universe is sold by weight, not by volume. Some settling may have occurred. You're not getting ripped off...

  9. Re:What good does that do? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why do they call them fingers, if you never see 'em fing?

    Oh wait, there they go.

  10. Re:What good does that do? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It turns out that logic is just a tool that our brains use to understand reality, and not a property of reality itself.

    So, the logical "must-haves" don't always apply to reality.

  11. Of all the known stars... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...which two are the closest to each other?

  12. Emerdophone... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i take requests

  13. Re:What good does that do? by youngone · · Score: 1

    Why can't I mod this +1 Heavy Drug Use?

  14. That sounds easy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess that if you make an empty map it would be 'mostly correct' already!

  15. Youngsters will find this astounding... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Remember when the solar system had nine planets?

  16. Not observing the 21 cm hydrogen emission line by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The 21 cm (1.4 GHz) hydrogen emission line lies outside the telescope's claimed frequency coverage of 0.4 to 0.8 GHz.