/sci/ - Science & Math

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4575/1

> The lunar farside is permanently shielded from the radio signals generated by humans on Earth. During the lunar night, it is also protected from the Sun. These characteristics make it probably the most “radio-quiet” location in the whole solar system as no other planet or moon has a side that permanently faces away from the Earth. It is therefore ideally suited for radio astronomy.

> Radio waves with wavelengths longer than about 15 meters are blocked by Earth’s ionosphere. But radio waves at these wavelengths reach the Moon’s surface unimpeded. For astronomy, this is the last unexplored region of the electromagnetic spectrum, and it is best studied from the lunar farside.

> Because the universe is constantly expanding, the 21-centimeter signal generated by hydrogen in the early universe has been shifted to much longer wavelengths. As a result, hydrogen from the cosmic “dark ages” will appear to us with wavelengths greater than 10 meters. The lunar farside may be the only place where we can study this.

> This would help to assess how capable these exoplanets are of hosting life. Radio waves from exoplanet magnetospheres would probably have wavelengths greater than 100 meters, so they would require a radio-quiet environment in space. Again, the far side of the Moon will be the best location.

> The Moon’s low gravity may also enable the construction of much larger telescopes than is feasible for free-flying satellites. These considerations have led the astronomer Jean-Pierre Maillard to suggest that the Moon may be the future of infrared astronomy.

The moon, the next place where astronomers will continue to seethe about this and that, clueless that getting there in the first place was due to industrialization