No place seems safe from the prying eyes of inquisitive astronomers.The "dark side of the Moon"?!? That is a Pink Floyd album, for the love of (yer fluffy lord). Seriously, how is it that the induhvidual who wrote that can drink a cup of coffee without drowning? Did anyone at McClatchy make it past the third grade?
They've traced the evolution of the universe back to the "Big Bang," the theoretical birth of the cosmos 13.7 billion years ago, but there's still a long stretch of time -- about 800 million years -- that's been hidden from view.
Astronomers call it the Dark Ages, and now they're building huge new radio telescopes with thousands of detectors that they hope will let them peer back into the period, when the first stars and galaxies began turning on their lights.
....
Because far-off radio signals are so faint, and so easily confused with background interference, only the largest telescopes can even hope to do the job.
At least three major projects are under construction in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Even more ambitious ones are proposed, possibly including a telescope on the dark side of the moon.
UPDATE: For those who suggested, with charity to McClatchy, that the writer was implying that the far side of the Moon is really the "dark side" for the purposes of radio astronomy, here is another quote from the story:
For this voyage into deep time, astronomers are using radio telescopes because radio waves -- which are much longer and slower than light waves are -- can pass through cosmic dust clouds that optical telescopes can't penetrate."Slower"? Oh, those pokey radio waves.
I rest my case.
8 comments:
Thanks EB!
As I said before, this is one of my favs.
Drop them a line and ask about the portable radio telescope.
Ooh, I want to ask them if they think there's no gravity on the moon, too. Or if sound is faster than light.
First off, I feel your pain -- bad astronomy is bad astronomy, and I don't think the author of the article had any idea what he was talking about.
That being said, for *radio* astronomy, there *is* a "dark" side of the moon, since the main source of radio signals in our immediate neighborhood is the Earth.
There actually is nontrivial justification for building radio telescopes on the side of the Moon that faces away from the Earth. Since those radio telescopes will always be in the Moon's radio "shadow" relative to the Earth, they can detect fainter signals from outside the Solar System.
The author of this article didn't explicitly make this distinction, but the distinction is there.
-B
'zactly Brian. Its just a figure of speech EBM. Though it does sound like that whole "dark side" concept irritates you and Dennis.
The far side would be a great place for a radio telescope array. Maybe thats why the greys are already there with their huge moon bases. I'm kidding, I'm kidding...
After reading your update with the quote from the article about radio waves being "slower" than light waves, I withdraw any sympathetic comments -- the author clearly has absolutely no idea what he's talking about, and anything in the article that sounds like actual science is a coincidence.
Now I feel like an idiot because I kinda sorta defended this bozo (though, for the record I did preface my original comment with "I don't think the author of the article had any idea what he was talking about").
-B
I, too withdraw the benefit-of-doubt..
because radio waves -- which are much longer and slower than light waves are -- can pass through cosmic dust clouds that optical telescopes can't penetrate.
Wow.
"Now Mr. Boyd, look at that camera and read the statement."
"O.K. My name is Robert S. Boyd, and I am not smarter than a fifth grader."
Ah err, uhm, urg, garf gag!
I've read some pseudo science but that bozo takes the missing brain award.
about the only thing that has some sense technically is if you can get the local noise both man made and environmental from the Earth and Sun out of the picture you might just hear more.
The rest is pure blather to hear his own noise. He embarrasses those that really do want to do science.
You nailed this one.
Eck!
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