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In addition to the development of three ultra-large telescopes to be installed on the Earth to observe the far side of the universe in detail, a project to transform the lunar crater into a giant radio telescope is also underway. In the midst of this, the astronomy team at the University of Texas at Austin argues that the ultimate large telescope ULT (Ultimately Large Telescope), which NASA gave up during a review in the past, is necessary to close the secret of the birth of the universe.
The ULT, proposed by a group of professors at the university’s astronomers Anna Schauer, is a giant telescope that NASA once called LLMT (Lunar Liquid Mirror Telescopes). In fact, it is necessary to build a 100m diameter ULT on the moon, much larger than the 20m diameter LLMT planned by NASA.
According to Professor Shauer, ULT is an analogy that a huge container filled with water is rotated to float liquid metal on it. When the liquid is rotated, the center is hollowed out by centrifugal force, but the basic principle of ULT is that it replaces a huge concave mirror by floating a liquid metal that reflects light.
This method can be made relatively inexpensive, as there is no need to carry a large glass main mirror to the moon, unlike a regular reflex telescope. However, the idea was eventually abandoned in 2008 when a team of astronomers at the University of Arizona proposed to NASA. Professor Schauer and others are paying attention to these telescopes because they learned that even with the James Webb Space Telescope HWST, which will be launched in 2021, it cannot capture primordial light right after the birth of the universe.
About the necessity of ULT, Professor Schauer said that the JWST is approaching the era when galaxies were first formed. It is difficult to capture light for a long time by high-performance JWST, so it is explained that ULT is what is needed.
Professor Schauer decided to install the ULT at the lunar north or south pole so that the incident light from the same direction can be observed as much as possible. In addition, ULT is expected to automatically observe the solar power plant installed on the moon and remotely control it and send the observation data to the moon orbiting satellite.
In the statement announcing the ULT, it was an important theme to illuminate the beginning of space history. have. Related information can be found here .
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