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Corey S Powell

For decades, astronomers have dreamed of setting up an observatory on the far side of the Moon. I read about it as a kid. Now it's happening!

The LuSEE-Night radio telescope is under construction, and is scheduled to land on the lunar farside in 2025. It's a pathfinder for a much bigger radio telescope that would follow. newscenter.lbl.gov/2023/09/26/ #space #nasa #science

This artist’s rendering shows LuSEE-Night atop the Blue Ghost spacecraft scheduled to deliver the experiment to the far side of the moon. Firefly Aerospace
6 comments
Louis Ingenthron

@coreyspowell What is the benefit to a surface observatory over one in, say, the Earth/Moon L2 point?

Leonardo Ferreira Fontenelle

@LouisIngenthron @coreyspowell

Radio telescopes need to be huge, and radio waves are harder to block than infrared. The sun also emits radio waves but I don't know how much of a problem it is.

Physician here, not physicist. All know about this I read in the link provided in the OP and this YouTube video by astrophysicist Matt O'Dowd

youtu.be/9F3WRMlZEy4

J.S. Pailly

@coreyspowell 2025? That's way sooner than I ever expected. I kind of thought of this as one of those "hopefully 20 years from now" kind of things.

Steffen Christensen

@coreyspowell It'll be the only dark skies in Earth-Lunar space soon enough.

Leonardo Ferreira Fontenelle

@coreyspowell

I can't help wondering what Pink Floyd would think of listening to radio on the dark side of the moon

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