The moon may open astronomy's next frontier.
"The primary mirror of JWST is 6.5 meters [21 feet] in diameter. The telescope implemented on the moon could be 13 meters [42 feet] in diameter, meaning a collecting area four times larger [than Webb's]," Maillard, an astronomer at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, wrote in the email."Therefore, with four times more light from a source, it would be more sensitive in the common 1 to 28 micrometers domain.
What Maillard is referring to is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that the James Webb Space Telescope can detect — radiation of wavelengths between 0.6 to 28 micrometers, which includes near-infrared and mid-infrared light. Infrared wavelengths are slightly longer than what human eyes can see and can be perceived as heat. By detecting infrared radiation, the James Webb Space Telescope can glimpse even those objects that are too cold to visibly glow.
But even Webb has its limit, Maillard explained. This limit is dependent on the telescope's temperature as well as the size of its mirror. An infrared telescope located in a permanently shadowed lunar crater could not only be bigger, but also colder and therefore capable of detecting even cooler phenomena.
"The maximum infrared limit comes from the temperature to which the telescope can be cooled down," Maillard said. In the case of the James Webb Space Telescope, the cool conditions are provided by a
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