Astronomy Colloquium

CHIME is a new interferometric telescope at radio frequencies 400-800 MHz. The mapping speed (or total statistical power) of CHIME is among the largest of any radio telescope in the world, and the technology powering CHIME could be used to build telescopes which are orders of magnitude more powerful. In the ~18 months since first light, CHIME has found an unprecedented number of fast radio bursts (FRBs), including ~20 new repeating FRBs, and the first repeating FRB with periodic activity. Understanding the origin of FRBs is a central unsolved problem in astrophysics, and the FRB science results from CHIME offer new clues toward solving the puzzle.