Astronomers want to build an Ultimately Large Telescope on the Moon

Astronomers want to build an Ultimately Large Telescope on the Moon.

The equipment would allow scientists to see deep into the universe in a way no other telescope can, allowing people to study the very first stars in the universe, watching them light up even before galaxies were formed.

Such a time has theoretically been proposed but never seen directly, because we don’t have sensitive enough equipment to see soon enough in cosmic time.

But a new study suggests that building a large telescope on the moon would allow scientists to study stars early on. The research will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The proposed telescope would have been purpose built so that it could be transported to the Moon, where it would be inside a crater, spinning and peering into the early universe.

“Over the course of the history of astronomy, telescopes have become more powerful, allowing us to probe sources from subsequently earlier cosmic times, ever closer to the Big Bang,” professor and team member Volker Bromm, a theorist who has studied the first stars for decades, he said in a statement.

“The next James Webb Space Telescope [JWST] it will reach the time when galaxies were first formed. But the theory predicts that there was an even earlier time, when galaxies did not yet exist, but where individual stars first formed: the elusive Population III stars.

“This moment of ‘very first light’ is beyond the capabilities of even the mighty JWST, and instead needs a ‘definitive’ telescope.”

The stars that were born first are unique: perhaps up to 100 times larger than the Sun, they were born from a mixture of hydrogen and helium.

The study’s calculations suggest that if a liquid mirror telescope were built on the surface of the moon, it would be able to see them, looking back in time to 13 million years ago. Researchers from the University of Arizona had actually proposed a similar facility in 2008 – called the Lunar Liquid-Mirror – but NASA didn’t push the project forward, due to a lack of clear science about the first stars and what the telescope could see.

To allow the telescope to be transported more easily, it would have been built of liquid rather than glass. Its mirror would be made up of a reflective metallic liquid that would sit atop a rotating tub, keeping it in the right shape so that it functions as a mirror.

It would be stationary on the surface of the moon, the researchers suggest, possibly located inside a crater at the north or south pole. It would keep looking at the same piece of sky, gathering as much light as possible.

“We live in a universe of stars,” Bromm said. “It is a key question how star formation began at the beginning of cosmic history. The emergence of the first stars marks a crucial transition in the history of the universe, as the primordial conditions established by the Big Bang gave way to ever-increasing cosmic complexity, ultimately bringing life to planets, life and intelligent beings like us.

“This first light moment is beyond the capabilities of current or near future telescopes. It is therefore important to think of the “definitive” telescope, capable of directly observing those first stars fleeing the boundaries of time. ”