The farside of the Moon is a pristine, quiet platform to conduct low radio frequency observations of the early Universe's Dark Ages, as well as space weather and magnetospheres associated with habitable exoplanets. In this paper, the astrophysics associated with NASA-funded concept studies will be described including a lunar-orbiting spacecraft, DAPPER, that will measure the 21 cm global spectrum at redshifts ≈40–80, and an array of low frequency dipoles on the lunar farside surface, FARSIDE, that would detect exoplanet magnetic fields. DAPPER observations (17–38 MHz), using a single cross-dipole antenna, will determine the amplitude of the 21 cm spectrum to the level required to distinguish the standard &Lgr;CDM cosmological model from those produced by exotic physics such as nongravitational dark matter interactions. FARSIDE has a notional architecture consisting of 128 dipole antennas deployed across a 10 km area by a rover. FARSIDE would image the entire sky each minute in 1400 channels over 0.1–40 MHz. This would enable monitoring of the nearest stellar systems for the radio signatures of coronal mass ejections and energetic particle events, and would also detect the magnetospheres of the nearest candidate habitable exoplanets. In addition, FARSIDE would provide a pathfinder for power spectrum measurements of the Dark Ages. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades’.

中文翻译：

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月球背面的变革性科学：在低无线电频率下对黑暗时代和系外行星系统的观察

月球背面是一个原始、安静的平台，可以对早期宇宙的黑暗时代以及与可居住系外行星相关的太空天气和磁层进行低无线电频率观测。在本文中，将描述与 NASA 资助的概念研究相关的天体物理学，包括月球轨道航天器 DAPPER，它将在红移 ≈40-80 时测量 21 厘米的全球光谱，以及月球上的一系列低频偶极子远侧表面，FARSIDE，将探测系外行星磁场。使用单个交叉偶极子天线的 DAPPER 观测（17-38 MHz）将确定 21 cm 频谱的幅度，使其达到区分标准 &Lgr;CDM 宇宙学模型与非引力暗物质等外来物理学产生的模型所需的水平互动。FARSIDE 的概念架构由 128 个偶极子天线组成，由流动站部署在 10 公里的区域内。FARSIDE 将在 0.1–40 MHz 上的 1400 个频道中每分钟对整个天空进行成像。这将能够监测最近的恒星系统以获取日冕物质抛射和高能粒子事件的无线电特征，并且还将检测最近的候选宜居系外行星的磁层。此外，FARSIDE 将为黑暗时代的功率谱测量提供探路者。本文是“来自月球的天文学：未来几十年”的讨论会议问题的一部分。这将能够监测最近的恒星系统以获取日冕物质抛射和高能粒子事件的无线电特征，并且还将检测最近的候选宜居系外行星的磁层。此外，FARSIDE 将为黑暗时代的功率谱测量提供探路者。本文是“来自月球的天文学：未来几十年”的讨论会议问题的一部分。这将能够监测最近的恒星系统以获取日冕物质抛射和高能粒子事件的无线电特征，并且还将检测最近的候选宜居系外行星的磁层。此外，FARSIDE 将为黑暗时代的功率谱测量提供探路者。本文是“来自月球的天文学：未来几十年”的讨论会议问题的一部分。