The Canadian-Chilean Array for Radio Transient Studies (CHARTS) is a new radio telescope designed to explore the dynamic radio sky, with a particular focus on fast radio bursts (FRBs)—extremely bright flashes of radio emission lasting only milliseconds whose physical origins remain one of the major mysteries of modern astrophysics.
Located outside Santiago, Chile, CHARTS is being developed as a wide-field, low-frequency radio interferometer operating from approximately 300–500 MHz. The full array will use 256 antenna elements to continuously survey a large fraction of the southern sky for transient radio signals. Its southern location provides an important complement to northern-hemisphere facilities such as CHIME and gives CHARTS excellent access to the Galactic Centre, where magnetars and other compact objects may produce powerful transient radio emission.
CHARTS is a collaboration between researchers and engineers in Canada and Chile, led by teams at the Universidad de Chile and the University of Toronto’s Dunlap Institute. The Dunlap team is contributing expertise in radio-frequency instrumentation, including the development and optimization of the array’s antennas, analog electronics, and signal-processing systems.
Once fully operational, CHARTS is expected to detect roughly 100 FRBs per year, opening a largely unexplored region of the low-frequency southern radio sky. By detecting and localizing nearby FRBs and other transient sources, CHARTS will help astronomers investigate the origins of these enigmatic signals while developing new technologies and expertise for the next generation of radio telescopes.