# The Hydrogen Map: How a Radio Telescope Heard Half the Universe

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates-5658676/the-hydrogen-map-how-a-radio-telescope-heard-half-the-universe
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates-5658676/the-hydrogen-map-how-a-radio-telescope-heard-half-the-universe.md
Podcast: [Astronomy Daily: Latest Space News](https://stenobird.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news-updates-5658676)
Published: 2026-09-05T08:33:40+00:00
Episode link: https://www.astronomydaily.io/episodes/the-hydrogen-map-how-a-radio-telescope-heard-half-the-universe/
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/track/op3.dev/e/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74922479/the_hydrogen_map_how_a_radio_telescope_heard_half_the_universe.mp3
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Duration seconds: 1658

## Resource

Anna and Avery open the Weekend Wrap with a genuine first: South Africa's MeerKAT has detected the 21-centimetre hydrogen signal from four to five billion light years away using radio data alone — no optical galaxy survey propping it up — proving out the technique the Square Kilometre Array will use to measure dark energy. Then the week in review: Roman's coronagraph wakes up, Starship Flight 14 gets a date, Mars turns out to be lopsided inside, BepiColombo lets go, LZ's one unexplained flash, and a centaur caught in the act of becoming a comet. Plus the sky for the week ahead, both hemispheres. Links & sources · University of Manchester — Astronomers use MeerKAT to directly detect faint hydrogen signal from the distant Universe — https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/astronomers-use-meerkat-to-directly-detect-faint-hydrogen-signal-from-the-distant-universe · The Astrophysical Journal Letters — Paul, Wolz, Santos, Chen et al. (paper DOI) — https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae808f · American Astronomical Society — release listing — https://aas.org/node/730547 · Phys.org — MeerKAT directly detects faint hydrogen signal from the distant universe — https://phys.org/news/2026-09-meerkat-faint-hydrogen-distant-universe.html · Space.com — Scientists detect signals of hydrogen from billions of years ago — https://www.space.com/astronomy/galaxies/scientists-detect-signals-of-hydrogen-from-billions-of-years-ago-could-this-help-us-map-out-the-universe · Xinhua — MeerKAT in South Africa directly detects faint hydrogen signal from distant universe — https://english.news.cn/africa/20260905/3f6c7164a4404b0a9b79f879b1d31a59/c.html · SKA Observatory — the construction journey (SKA-Mid, Karoo; SKA-Low, Murchison) — https://www.skao.int/en/explore/construction-journey · NASA Scienc…

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