Pull to refresh
Logo
Daily Brief
Following
Why Sign Up
NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services

NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services

Government Program

Appears in 1 story

Stories

First radio telescope heads to Moon's far side

New Capabilities

Funding and managing commercial lunar deliveries

No instrument has ever detected light from the cosmic Dark Agesβ€”the 200-million-year period after the Big Bang when the universe contained nothing but hydrogen gas, before the first stars ignited. Earth-based telescopes cannot observe this era: the atmosphere blocks the relevant radio frequencies, and human electronics drown out the faint signals. A radio telescope on the Moon's far side, shielded by 2,000 miles of rock from Earth's interference, could finally peer into this unexplored epoch.

Updated Jan 30