Through a announcementthe NASA and the United States Department of Energy (DOE) announced that they are working on the manufacture of a scientific instrument, which will be installed in the darkest part of the moon and with which they hope to discover astronomical information that had never been accessed before.
He Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night) it is a “scout” device that is designed to understand the radio environment of the Moon and may possibly grant access to an previously unexplored era of our cosmic history.
“It’s a fascinating experiment that will bring us closer to observing something we’ve never been able to before: the sign of the dark ages“, says Asmeret Asefew Berhedirector of the DOE Office of Science.
What is the dark age of the universe?
According to ABC, hundreds of millions of years ago, the entire universe consisted of a thick soup of hydrogen atoms wrapped in total darkness, which would not have allowed the penetration of the stars we know today and, therefore, there was a absolute darkness.
Subsequently, the universe became neutral and the “time of reionization”, this meant that the first luminous structures heated and ionized the medium. And that was how the dark period of the universe ended and, probably, the last cosmic evolution in history.
When is NASA’s LuSEE-Night going to be launched?
According to the statement published by the space agency, the project hopes to become a reality in 2025, and will have to deal with the opaque ionosphere of our planet and the constant noise pollution of the inner Solar System.
“LuSEE-Night will operate during the low temperatures of the 14-day lunar night, when there is no available sunlight to generate power or heat,” he said. Joel Kearnsdeputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
“Every time we have opened a new frequency window in cosmology, we have unlocked new discoveries regarding the history of the universe and our place in it“, says Anze Slosarspokesperson for the American Scientific Collaboration.
All regarding Astronomy
