In the world · Science · 10 June 2025
BINGO: the backlands radio telescope measuring hydrogen
Being built in Aguiar, Paraíba, BINGO will measure the universe's hydrogen to study dark energy. First signals are expected between 2026 and 2027.
bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published
High on the Serra do Urubu, in Aguiar, in the semi-arid backlands (sertão) of Paraíba, BINGO is being assembled: a Brazilian radio telescope built to hear the hydrogen of the universe. Its main structure left China in June 2025, construction advanced throughout 2026, and the project's coordinators expect the first signals between late 2026 and early 2027. The goal is to measure how hydrogen spread across the cosmos and, with that, to study dark energy.
What happened
BINGO stands for Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Integrated Neutral Gas Observations. The name is long, but the idea fits in one sentence: use the hydrogen signal to measure a ruler that the universe itself left imprinted on the distribution of matter.
In Brazil the project is led by USP (University of São Paulo), INPE (the National Institute for Space Research) and the Federal University of Campina Grande, with collaborators from China, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and South Africa. It began in 2016, with support from Fapesp, and received funding from the Paraíba state government, Finep, CNPq and Chinese institutions.
On June 10, 2025, according to Jornal da Paraíba, the metal structure that forms the main body of the telescope left the port of Tianjin, in China, bound for the port of Suape, in Pernambuco. At the time, the earthworks were finished, the control house and the solar plant were ready, and the receiving horns had been manufactured in São Paulo. The state government reported a direct investment of R$ 20 million.
In May 2026, INPE's coordinator on the project, Carlos Alexandre Wuensche, told the Paraíba Business portal that the first tests could begin in November 2026, in an optimistic forecast, or in January 2027, in a conservative one. BINGO's official website states that the receivers and electronics are undergoing integration tests.
Why it matters
BINGO observes between 980 and 1,260 MHz. That is not the exact hydrogen line, at 1,420 MHz, and the reason is beautiful: the universe is expanding, and the signal that left distant galaxies arrives stretched, at a lower frequency. By listening in this band, the telescope sees the hydrogen from when the universe was between 72% and 88% of its current age.
By measuring how this gas clusters, researchers want to calculate the expansion rate of the cosmos and understand dark energy, which accounts for most of the content of the universe and which no one yet knows the nature of.
The site was also chosen for its silence. Aguiar was selected for its low electromagnetic interference, with no cell phone coverage and far from air routes. It is cutting-edge science installed in the sertão precisely because human noise there is low.
In Bairo's view
Bairo is an immigrant who built his life in Brazil. For him, seeing the Paraíba backlands receive an instrument designed to hear hydrogen is a powerful image: the most sophisticated science chose the quietest place, not the richest.
In his reading, BINGO teaches something about the 21 cm yardstick that the project's own name already says: the ruler still holds even when stretched by distance. Those who study the sky recognize hydrogen at whatever frequency the journey has carried it to. The 1420 is, for Bairo, a symbol of silence and listening, and BINGO hears the echo of that same line. No one transmits on 1420 MHz.
He also sees a practical question behind projects like this: scientific data that will feed studies for decades. For Bairo, information that needs to last needs protection that lasts, and that is the benefit he proposes with qrqbits: post-quantum cryptography, built to stay secure when quantum computers mature.
Where this meets the ecosystem
1420mhz, created by CLAIN, carries the name of the hydrogen frequency as a tribute. The name CLAIN comes from the English to claim: the proposal, in development, is that anyone can claim access to an intelligence that used to be expensive. BINGO shows the same idea from another angle, with international science reaching the sertão. Bairo sees in this a sign that knowledge can reach any place when someone decides to take it there.
The relationship is one of inspiration. There is no partnership between Bairo's fronts and BINGO.
Sources
- BINGO Telescope, the project's official website, accessed October 2026.
- Jornal da Paraíba, radio telescope is shipped from China to Paraíba, 06/11/2025.
- Paraíba Business, BINGO expected to capture first signals in 2026, 05/18/2026.
- Paraíba Total, BINGO begins installation phase, 06/12/2025.
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