Unbelievably Large Telescopes On the Moon? 292
Matt_dk writes "A team of internationally renowned astronomers and opticians may have found a way to make "unbelievably large" telescopes on the Moon.
'It's so simple,' says Ermanno F. Borra, physics professor at the Optics Laboratory of Laval University in Quebec, Canada. 'Isaac Newton knew that any liquid, if put into a shallow container and set spinning, naturally assumes a parabolic shape, the same shape needed by a telescope mirror to bring starlight to a focus. This could be the key to making a giant lunar observatory.'"
Wow (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
We have. This "news" is literally decades old.
http://www.google.com/search?q=liquid+telescope+moon&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS264US264 [google.com]
http://inventorspot.com/articles/liquid_lunar_telescope_5345 [inventorspot.com] That one says that it was first suggested in 1991. I bet someone thought of it earlier.
It WILL happen one day (Score:4, Interesting)
Read TFA, sounds fundamentally flawed. (Score:4, Interesting)
The "liquids" to be used are less dense than water, and being placed on the lunar surface, which is covered in dust several times finer than baking powder.
I'd give it about 3-5 days (depending on the size) before the "revolving liquid mirrors" become revolving lunar mud pies.
Spin it & freeze it (Score:5, Interesting)
It would mean having to choose the right material (solid at moon temperature, liquid at not too much more, small/no surface crystals on freezing, ionic so that it can be coated with silver, ...). Making something like this on the moon would be much cheaper than taking it up there.
OK: I understand that they might not want to steer if far off vertical to keep things cheap but I would have thought that a little directionality would be a boon.
Re:It WILL happen one day (Score:5, Interesting)
Put the telescope 550 AU out (Score:5, Interesting)
...at the sun's gravitational focus. You'd be able to resolve a planet halfway across the galaxy.
First link I pulled from Google (but there are several others): http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=176 [centauri-dreams.org]
Re:It WILL happen one day (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't be ridiculous; the moon is both smaller, less geologically active and less populated that any place on earth.
It would be a simple thing to install a fiberoptic "lunar telegraph" from one side to the other,.
It's not like you have to dig under peoples houses and get easements, after all :)
Re:It WILL happen one day (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ob (Score:2, Interesting)