The moon may provide new clues to understanding the formation mechanisms of the first stars and galaxies in the early Universe.
A team of astronomers led by Dr. Benjamin McKinley from an affiliate of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research at Curtin University, Australia, conducted a moon observation radio telescope to help find the weak signal emitted by the hydrogen atoms of the early universe.
Before the advent of stars and galaxies, the universe was mostly filled with hydrogen, freely floating in outer space.Since at that time there were no sources of optical radiation visible to us in the Universe, this period was called the“ cosmic dark age.
-Dr. McKinley
In their new study, the McKinley team describes the use of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope to detect radio signals emitted by hydrogen atoms.
If we could detect this signal, it would confirm the validity of our theories of the evolution of the Universe
-Dr. McKinley
This radio signal coming from the early Universe is very weak compared to extremely bright objects in the foreground, such as accreting black holes in other galaxies and electrons in our Milky Way galaxy.
The key to solving the problem of detecting this signal is to accurately measure the average brightness of the sky.
However, the intrinsic errors of the instruments and the unavoidable background noise in the radio range make it difficult to make accurate observations of this very dim radio signal.
In this new work, astronomers used the moon as a reference source of known brightness and form.
This allowed the team to measure the brightness of the Milky Way, compared to the Moon passing in front of it.
Astronomers also took into account the glow of the Earth – radio waves coming from Earth, reflected from the surface of the Moon and falling back into the telescope. The glow of the Earth distorts the Moon’s own radio signal, and the team had to remove this source of signal contamination during analysis.
New observations, which are planned by the McKinley team, will help detect this hydrogen signal and thus verify the theoretical models of the Universe.
Our moon helps to unlock the secrets of the universe
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