Astronomers prepare to launch LuSEE night, a test observatory on the far side of the moon

Astronomers have not yet been able to map most of the radio emissions from space, due to interference from the Earth itself. A team of astronomers wants to change that, starting with his LuSEE Night mission to the far side of the moon. It will launch in 2025, marking a new route to the lunar observatory.

The earth is very noisy on radio, especially at frequencies below 20 megahertz.The planet’s own ionosphere crackles and obscures those frequencies radio wave radiation From more distant sources. In addition, they use low-frequency radio waves for communication and radar search, overwhelming the sources of space.

The only way to reduce the pollution of our planet is to get up and leave it.The best place is across from Moon, causing most of the lunar body to block radio emissions from the Earth. The Sun itself is also a fairly large source of radio signals at these frequencies, so the best time to observe is during the night of the Moon when the far side of the Moon is in darkness.

But build a radio observatory on top the other side of the moon It’s not an easy task, so you have to start small. One of the first steps is a package of LuSEE Night, the Luar Surface Electromagnetic Explorer, a small radio antenna and equipment that will be delivered to the far side of the moon as early as 2025.

LuSEE Night owes its technological legacy to the Parker Solar Probe, and is in fact a near-identical copy of one of the instruments on board that spacecraft. LuSEE Night consists of a minimal set of electronics plus two 6m long antennas arranged in a cross shape.

In Observation mode, the instrument is relatively quiet and does not add radio pollution. The data can then be sent to a lunar orbiter that sends the data back to Earth.

The team behind LuSEE Night hopes to capture some of the first observations of extreme cyclones. frequency radio universe, including emissions from cosmic rays The magnetic field of the Milky Way galaxy and supernovae white dwarf.

LuSEE Night is just the first step.of Astronomer We hope that future observatories and missions on the far side of the moon will prove successful so that they can open new windows into space.