Radical liquid-mirror moon telescope could see back to the very first stars – CNET [CNET]

NASA’s much-delayed James Webb Space Telescope will be able to stare deep into the past, illuminating the birth of the universe’s first galaxies. But some astronomers want to go back even further, to investigate the very first stars. A radical concept for a lunar telescope could take us there.

A team of astronomers at the University of Texas at Austin have revisited a concept for a liquid-mirror telescope on the moon that was originally floated over a decade ago, but got shelved by NASA. The researchers are set to publish a new paper on the idea in a future issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

Astronomers have theorized that the very first stars formed 13 billion years ago, before galaxies came together. “This moment of first light lies beyond the capabilities of current or near-future telescopes. It is therefore important to think about the ‘ultimate’ telescope, one that is capable of directly observing those elusive first stars at the edge of time,” said co-author Volker Bromm in a McDonald Observatory statement on Monday.

The moon telescope would be unusual, breaking from the use of solid mirrors like we see with James Webb. “The telescope’s mirror would be a spinning vat of liquid, topped by a metallic — and thus reflective — liquid,” the observatory said. Mercury is an example of a metal that works for this application. 

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