Date: August 21, 2010
Title: Astrophysics from the Moon
Podcaster: NASA Lunar Science Institute
Organization: NLSI
Description: Will we ever live and work on the Moon? It’s been a dream of scientists, space advocates and science fiction fans for decades. While the debate of whether to return to the Moon, or if we should go to asteroids or Mars is now ongoing, one thing to consider is the scientific research that could be done from the Moon. Many scientists feel that the moon would be an excellent location for telescopes, — both on the surface an in lunar orbit – and they could help answer some of the most important questions in astrophysics today. Nancy Atkinson talks with Dr. Jack Burns from the University of Colorado in Boulder about performing astrophysics studies from the Moon, including a proposed lunar orbiting low frequency antenna that could measure the signatures of the first collapsing structures in the early universe.
Bio: The NLSI brings together leading lunar scientists from around the world to further NASA lunar science and exploration.
Dr. Jack Burns is a professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado. He is also the Director of the NASA/NLSI Lunar University Network for Astrophysics Research (LUNAR).
Nancy Atkinson is a science journalist and is the Senior Editor for Universe Today.
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Transcript:
Voice: You are listening to the NASA Lunar Science Institute podcast which highlights the latest news information of the Moon, on the Moon and from the Moon. It is produced from the NASA Lunar Science Institute at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.
Nancy Atkinson: Will we ever live and work on the Moon? It’s been a dream of scientists, space advocates and science fiction fans for decades. Hi, this is Nancy Atkinson for the NASA Lunar Science Institute. The debate of whether to return to the Moon, or if we should go to asteroids or Mars is now ongoing, but one thing to consider is the scientific research that could be done from the Moon. Many scientists feel that the moon would be an excellent location for telescopes, — both on the surface an in lunar orbit – and they could help answer some of the most important questions in astrophysics today. At this year’s annual Lunar Forum, sponsored by the NASA Lunar Science Institute, Dr. Jack Burns from the University of Colorado in Boulder talked about a lunar orbiting low frequency antenna that could measure the signatures of the first collapsing structures in the early universe. I caught up with him after his talk to ask him more about using the Moon as a platform for astrophysics.
I’m with Jack Burns from the University of Colorado, Boulder. And Jack, tell us about using the Moon as a platform for astrophysics and studying the Universe.
Jack Burns: I’d be happy to do that. The moon in many ways is a truly unqiue platform from which we can look outward into the cosmos and do some unique observations, astronomical observations, particularly the far side of the Moon is uniquely radio quiet in the inner part of the solar system, because the far said is always facing away from the Earth, the Moon is blocking out all the interfering signals that we have when either you are on the surface of the Earth or in orbit. These are man-made signals from radio, TV and satellites.
Nancy: What are some of the things specifically, using the Moon for that, what would you be looking for?
Burns: Well,, in the low radio frequencies, there are several things that are very interesting. One is actually studying the sun at low frequencies, below 10 megahertz, that is very far down below the FM part of the radio dial, if you will. The sun emits very strongly at low radio frequencies, and they are related to these bursts that are accelerated during times of activities on the sun, things called Coronal Mass Ejections produce these very high energy particles which interfere with satellites and could potentially be very harmful to astronauts traveling to interplanetary space, so we will be trying to image and to understand how these particles are accelerated. The second thing we are doing at very low frequencies is studying the very early universe; at times of less than half a billion years after the big bang. At these low radio frequencies, we’ll be able to probe into what astronomers call the dark ages, before the first stars and galaxies formed.
Nancy: So, leading into that, you have a project that you are working on that is looking into that. Could you tell us about that project?
Burns: It is called LCODE, and that stands for Lunar Cosmology Dipole Explorer. It is an orbiting satellite that carries a single dipole antenna, kind of like your car antenna, but two of those making a dipole. It flies around the Moon and we take data only when we are above the far side, and that is the shielded zone where we are free of radio interference and that allows us, because it is so quiet there, to take measurements of these very faint emissions from this very early era, the dark ages.
Nancy: Is there actually a second stage if that is successful that you would actually have some equipment on the Moon, on the far side?
Burns: Indeed, that‘s right. So the first stage of this single dipole would allow us to look for these signals over the entire sky. The next stage would be to put an array of dipole antennas on the surface, something like ten thousand of these, and use that as what is called a radio interferometer that allows us to actually get some resolution to do some imaging and explore the composition of these structures in the early universe that eventually go on to form stars and galaxies.
Nancy: Are there other ideas of doing research from the Moon?
Burns: There are. Another topic that our topic that our group is working on is called Lunar Laser Ranging, and it once again, takes unique advantage of the Moon and that is using the laser beam currently off a three and a half meter optical telescope in New Mexico and shining off of these mirror retro-reflectors on the Moon and measuring very accurately, within a millimeter now, and we hope 10-100 microns in the near future with a new array on the Moon and very accurately measure the distance and from that, it tells us important information about gravitational physics. It allows us for example, to test general relativity, and what we are really looking to do is to see where general relativity is going to break down. Because we know that although Einstein has done a great job and general relativity has withstood all these tests for a hundred years, eventually it will break down at some level, because it is not the final answer. The final answer has to combine gravity with quantum physics for an ultimate theory. So at some level at some precision, it is going to break down. And where it does will tell us something very important about a next generation of gravitational physics models.
Nancy: That’s very exciting. Sometimes in science fiction and other things I’ve seen telescopes on the Moon up by the lunar poles and that kind of thing. Is that something that is plausible and how far into the future do you think we’ll have to wait to see something like that?
Burns: It’s a little hard to say right now, with NASA doing some re-tooling. On the one hand it is very exciting in the next few years because there are plans for a number of unmanned precursor missions to the Moon which will open up presumably the poles for exploration and potentially sites for telescopes. The poles have these permanently shadowed craters, which are very cold, only about 40 degrees above absolute zero. Some folks have speculated they could make a very interesting site for infrared telescopes where you need to cool the telescopes down to very low temperatures, and so some have speculated they could be good sites for those telescopes, too.
Nancy: Thanks very much, Jack!
Voice: To find out more about this topic, visit our website at www.lunarscience.nasa.gov. Any opinions expressed are the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of NASA or the NASA Lunar Science Institute. This podcast is produced for educational purposes only. On behalf of the NASA Lunar Science Institute, thanks for listening.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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