SSS 2008-02-27

（单词翻译）

This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I am Adam Hinterthuer. Got a minute?

 Earlier this month, NASA announced that an MIT Physics professor will lead a team of scientists on a new mission. The objective: build a giant radio telescope on the far side of the moon. You see, long long ago, before there even was a galaxy¹ far far away, the universe settled into a cosmic Dark Age. It was a billion year period following the Big Bang and it produced the structure of space as we know it. Astronomers² have long hoped to detect the faint low-frequency radio emissions³ generated from this time so they could learn more. But thanks to the interference from the ionosphere, not to mention tons of radio and TV signals, earth is a lousy place to hear. Luckily the moon rotates so that one side always faces out into space, making it free and clear of noise pollution. The MIT team will use automated⁴ vehicles to arrange hundreds of antennas⁵ across 2 square kilometers of the moon’s quiet side. From this perch⁶, they hope to hear the waves produced from the birth of the universe and get in tune⁷ with how it all came to be.

Thanks for the minute, for Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I am Adam Hinterthuer.