Infrared astronomy, particularly in spectroscopy, could benefit in a decisive way from an implementation of telescopes on the Moon since the largest telescopes on Earth are practically limited to 40 m and in space to 10 m. On the Moon, a collector larger than on Earth becomes conceivable, thanks to the low gravity and the absence of wind, in having the advantages of space. Passively cooled in the bottom of a permanently shadowed crater at the northern or the southern pole, it could reach unprecedented spectral sensitivity on a large part of the infrared domain, making possible spectral analysis of the most primitive galaxies and of the terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres. A project aiming at the detection of the weak cosmic microwave background spectral distortions is also presented. Several identical 1.5 m cryo-cooled telescopes at 2.5 K to fit in a launcher, with an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer in each unit, deposited in a cold crater and pointing in the same direction in lunar survey mode, would build for this fundamental goal the equivalent of a large telescope at an extremely low temperature. Last, the feasibility of these projects is discussed. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades'.

中文翻译：

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月球是红外天文学的未来吗？

红外天文学，特别是光谱学，可以从月球望远镜的实施中以决定性的方式受益，因为地球上最大的望远镜实际上限制在 40 m，而在太空中则限制为 10 m。在月球上，由于低重力和无风，可以想象比地球上的收集器更大的收集器具有空间优势。在北极或南极永久阴影陨石坑底部被动冷却，它可以在大部分红外域上达到前所未有的光谱灵敏度，从而可以对最原始的星系和类地系外行星大气进行光谱分析。还介绍了一个旨在检测弱宇宙微波背景光谱畸变的项目。2 个相同的 1.5 m 低温冷却望远镜。5 K 安装在发射器中，每个单元都有一个成像傅里叶变换光谱仪，沉积在一个冷的陨石坑中并在月球勘测模式下指向相同的方向，将为这个基本目标建造一个相当于极低的大型望远镜温度。最后，讨论了这些项目的可行性。这篇文章是讨论会问题“月球天文学：未来几十年”的一部分。