BINGO has just won its forecast to get off the ground and start operating. Created to make observations in the “dark sector” of the Universe, the radio telescope will start operating in the first half of 2023 in the city of Aguiar, located in the interior of Paraíba, where there is little “electromagnetic pollution” that can interfere with the analyses.
The project is coordinated by Élcio Abdalla, theoretical physicist and professor at the University of São Paulo (USP), and has as one of its objectives to bring new knowledge about dark energy — a mysterious and hypothetical force that would be accelerating the expansion of the Universe —, as well as exploring other big questions in cosmology.
“Observations allow science to be done in an effective and important way, capturing information about the formation of the first structures, the formation of galaxies and even larger structures”, comments Abdalla, reiterating that most of the energy in the Universe has an unknown source. , and BINGO can help explain this issue.
About 95% of the Universe’s energy content is completely unknown, and BINGO will look at the detailed distribution of known matter to check dark sector bonds.
Elicio Abdalla
Theoretical Physicist and BINGO Project Coordinator
With “dark sector”, the physicist encompasses dark matter and dark energy — theories widely studied by astronomers. BINGO will use baryon acoustic oscillations as a “ruler” to measure the expansion of the Universe as a function of its redshift (red shift) through electromagnetic and radiofrequency emission from atomic hydrogen.
BINGO will work together with three other smaller radio telescopes — including Uirapuru, located in Campina Grande — which will observe fast radio bursts (FRBs), known as one of the most energetic and mysterious phenomena in the Universe.
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Amílcar Rabelo de Queiroz, professor of physics at the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), explains that the FRBs are capable of emitting, in milliseconds, all the energy produced in a three-day interval by the Sun. These phenomena can help estimate the amount of energy and dark matter in the cosmos.
The radio telescope is a project led by the University of São Paulo with the collaboration of specialists from Germany, China, the United States and other regions. “The technological advance will be very great for our country”, said Professor Élcio Abdalla.
