Scientists from China are looking at using the moon to learn more about the early, dark days of our universe.
10 satellites are set to be sent into orbit around the moon by the Discovering the Sky at the Longest Wavelengths (DSL) mission, also known as Hongmeng.
The aim is to pick up faint cosmic signals by using the moon to block electromagnetic interference from human activity on Earth.
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Mystery still shrouds the cosmic dark ages – an era before stars began to shine in the sky.
But this new approach intends to collect faint, stretched-out, ultra-long wavelength light emitted by hydrogen atoms formed by the Big Bang.
The faint signals from the deep universe will be collected by nine daughter satellites while orbiting on the far side of the moon, where the terrestrial interference will be blocked.
A mother satellite will then gather that collected information and beam the data back to Earth when on the near side of the moon.
The low-frequency signals from the early cosmos have previously been considered almost impossible to receive on Earth due to the planet's ionosphere – the area where Earth's atmosphere meets space.
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But the Hongmeng idea is regarded as an inventive alternative to the more costly and technically troublesome method of placing telescopes on the surface of the far side of the moon.
Chen Xuelei, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is heading the mission, which is seeking approval from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' New Horizons Programme and it is anticipated this could be granted in coming weeks, according to the South China Morning Post.
The DSL mission was previously proposed as a joint Sino-European project but was not given the green light.
It is now felt that the proposal has a greater chance of approval, though, through CAS’s New Horizons programme.
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