An international scientific project is underway to build a radio telescope in Uruguay this year to map the cosmos in the intermediate stage between the present time and the Big Bang as part of an effort to search for clues about the origins of the universe, project organizers told EFE.
“These fixed antennas will scan the sky and, as they move along with the Earth’s rotation, will observe different regions to detect the emission of hydrogen clouds in galaxies younger than ours, conducting ‘mapping’ of the galaxy in the middle stage between the present and the Big Bang,” Gonzalo Tancredi, the project supervisor on the Uruguayan side, said.
“The goal … is to determine how the disturbances generated by the Big Bang expanded through the universe and to measure the variations in explosions in that intermediate stage, observing how the universe originated and evolved, and debating different models of origin and evolution,” Tancredi said.
The array for the project, called “Bingo,” will be installed in an abandoned quarry in Minas de Corrales, a town in the northern province of Rivera.
The location was chosen to meet the requirements of a latitude between 30 and 35 degrees south, and an area with a low level of interference from radio waves and not to close to a city, Tancredi, director of the Astronomy Department at the University of the Republic, said.
Construction is expected to start in the second half of 2016 and the radio telescope should be operating 12-18 months later. EFE