Uncovering the cosmic dawn from the far side of the Moon

 HEY, SPACE PLACERS!

Artist's impression of moon spacecraft

An artist’s impression of the UK-led CosmoCube spacecraft. Credit: Nicolo Bernardini (SSTL Ltd) & Kaan Artuc (University of Cambridge) VIA COSMOS

From COSMOS:

Astronomers are planning to launch a tiny spacecraft to the far side of the Moon to listen out for “ancient whispers” in a quest to uncover the secrets of the early universe.

The mission will focus on understanding the ‘Cosmic Dawn’, a period in the early stages of the universe after the Big Bang but before the first stars and galaxies appeared.

One of the difficulties in studying this period of the universe is that silence is essential.

With all the electronics and interference in our atmosphere, Earth becomes too loud, making it unsuitable for this kind of research.

“It’s like trying to hear that whisper while a loud concert is playing next door,” says Dr Eloy de Lera Acedo, who presented the proposal earlier this week to the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting 2025, in Durham, UK. 

“This makes it really hard to pick up those faint signals from billions of years ago. To detect a special radio signal that comes from hydrogen – the first, most basic and most abundant chemical element – in the early universe, we need it to be quiet.

Sky Guy in VA

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