I, you, your dog, Jupiter, Andromeda and all other galaxies are made of atoms. Primarily hydrogen atoms – the most common element – but also helium, carbon, oxygen, etc. It sounds like a silly statement, but it isn’t: matter as we know it, astronomers call it Baryonic, corresponds to only 5% of everything that exists in the universe.
is being one thingIn short, something rare in the universe. Most of the overall energy content in the darkness around us is made up of two mysterious entities: 27% dark matter (which we know exists through the influence of gravity, but cannot be detected) and 68% dark energy – the expanding force of the universe, pulling galaxies away from each other.
Brazil is on the cusp of becoming an important center for research into dark matter and many other major topics of contemporary astronomy, such as pulsars and the fast rush of radio (rest assured, reader, you’ll already understand what these things are). The Bingo Radio Telescope is scheduled to be commissioned in the second half of 2022 in the municipality of Aguiar, which has a population of 5,500, in the interior of Paraíba. a outletIt even launched today (6) and you can actually spy.
This peculiar tool, whose infrastructure occupies an area the size of Maracanã, is the result of a partnership between the University of São Paulo (USP), the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), and institutions from China, the United Kingdom and seven other countries.
The pandemic impeded the project’s progress and made a series of direct face-to-face activities impossible. For example, parts called “horns” (which actually look like Cornetto ice cream) are still being built, and additional, smaller telescopes called arms They are being tested by researchers at the moment.
Before we get into the details, let’s start with the basics: What’s the difference between a radio telescope and a regular telescope? What does the abbreviation bingo mean? Why was it installed in such a secluded place?
Bingo for beginners
Electromagnetic waves – what we generally call “light” – come in different lengths. The shorter ones are more active; The longest are lazy. Human vision can only explain waves within a very specific range of lengths. These are the colors we know. Colors of the rainbow. Nature’s pencil box is much larger: there are radio waves, microwaves, infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, X-rays, gamma rays …
Although these colors are invisible to our biology, they are part of our daily life: they heat our food, burn our skin on the beach, see inside our bodies, and of course, they are the secret behind telecommunication: radio, TV, mobile phone, wi-fi, etc. .
The universe does not care what humans use to set each type of wave. Outside, the light is dim. Astronomical phenomena emit radiation of all colors, those we see and those we don’t see alike. That’s why telescopes were made to see colors that are invisible to us – and they discover things we can’t do with lenses and our eyes alone. This is the case of Bingo, a telescope designed to capture radio waves. So radio telescope.
When you turn on an analog TV, you see grainy gray interference. Part of this interference is created by residual radiation from the Big Bang that reaches Earth’s antennas. This light, which dates back to the origin of the universe, has been completely dimmed after traveling for 13.8 billion years. Permeates the entire universe and is called cosmic background radiation.
Remember we said, at the beginning, that hydrogen is the most common element in the universe? Yes, it’s so basic black that astronomers call it a “neutral gas.” When the cosmic background radiation interacts with hydrogen, the atoms of this neutral gas vibrate and release a tiny fraction of the radiation with a length equivalent to radium. This is the radiation that the Bingo telescope will capture here in Paraíba.
Well, and will you pick up why?
Now we are getting dressed to understand the Bingo acronym: Acoustic baryon oscillations in neutral gases observations (In the free translation, “sound vibrations of baryons in the integral observations of neutral gas.) “Baryons” is just a stylized name for the particles such as protons and neutrons that make up atoms. This is where the name “baryonic matter” comes from – which we use at the beginning of the text to refer to us and to other tangible and discoverable things in the universe.
The purpose of capturing this radiation is to map the distribution of hydrogen across the universe. By knowing where more or less neutral gas amounts are, scientists can deduce important data about the expansion of the universe. And so he took an important step in investigating dark energy, which is responsible for expansion.
The problem with picking up radio from space is that radio is already common here on Earth. According to Elsio Abdallah, professor at the University of the South Pacific Institute of Physics (IF) and project coordinator, “The main problem with the installation of the radio telescope is that there is no waveform interference in the band we are observing, between 960 and 1260 MHz.”
“This is a large-scale use that human emissions can interfere with – cell phones, radio and television broadcasts… also interfere with aircraft trajectories and wind power generation.” Elcio explains that Aguiar was the cleanest place [do ponto de vista eletromagnético] Found in polls in Brazil and Uruguay – with the advantage of being close to the UFCG, which is part of the partnership.
Bingo will have two circular satellite dishes, one with a diameter of 40m and one with a diameter of 34m. It is complemented by 50 horns (remember it?) with a diameter of 1.9 meters and a length of 4.3 meters. As a telescope designed to receive radio waves, it is a far cry from the cliched look of a tube with eyepieces—the idea of a telescope in the popular imagination.
Rapid impulses of radio
In addition to studying the distribution of hydrogen in the universe, BINGO will contribute to the observation and study of fast radio blasts (FRB) – in Portuguese, “Fast Radio Bursts”. These are high-energy electromagnetic pulses that last for milliseconds. The first detection of FRB occurred in 2007, and until now the cause and origin of these disorders is still unknown.
“If we could observe more of the structure of this phenomenon and describe it from a dynamic point of view, it would indeed have been fantastically significant,” Abdullah says. “Observation is very important indeed. Giving a theoretical explanation—at least an indication of its origin—would be more than that.”
Bingo will also make it possible to study another phenomenon: pulsars. A pulsar is a neutron star – understand here what a neutron star is – that spins very fast and emits beams of radio waves from its poles thanks to a very strong magnetic field.
Pulsars around them are subject to unusual conditions, and their study expands our understanding of gravity, the formation of the universe, and the behavior of electric and magnetic fields in extreme situations.
The project also provides for obtaining information about the objects closest to us. You are arms (auxiliary telescopes) Propagation through other regions of the country will make it possible to determine the presence of satellites, for example.
Finally, the scientists involved in Bingo plan to give lectures and presentations at schools and museums—among other projects to explain the science made there to the public. After all, in times of earthworks, the anti-vaccination movement and many other shadows, it is not enough to fight to do science in Brazil today. We also need to create a generation that will grow up aware of the central role of research in the country – and not need to struggle too hard to implement it in the future.
“Friendly zombie guru. Avid pop culture scholar. Freelance travel geek. Wannabe troublemaker. Coffee specialist.”
