The end of US support for the CMB-S4 telescope is devastating

image via New Scientist

October 29, 2025, 6:00 PM

• •The US government's decision to stop supporting the CMB-S4 project is considered calamitous.
• •CMB-S4 would have provided unprecedented insight into the early universe by studying the cosmic microwave background radiation.
• •The project aimed to look for evidence of primordial gravitational waves and study dark matter and dark energy.
• •The decision is seen as part of the US's retreat from global scientific collaboration.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein laments the US government's decision to cease supporting the CMB-S4 project, a next-generation telescope facility designed to provide unprecedented insights into the early universe. The CMB-S4 project was meant to explore the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, providing crucial information about the universe's origins, including evidence of primordial gravitational waves and the distribution of dark matter and dark energy. The author emphasizes that the withdrawal represents a major setback for global scientific collaboration and hinders our understanding of the cosmos, comparing it to choosing the less-traveled road in Robert Frost's poem, but in a negative context.

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