China put a telescope on the far side of the moon. It still cannot escape from radio noise
- An instrument on board the Chang’e 4 lander was intended to scan the universe free from radio interference from Earth but the reality is proving trickier
- Scientists knew radio noise from the lander would be a problem, but now need another solution after their initial precautions did not prove effective
Making observations from the far side of the moon has long been a goal for astronomers because the radio environment there is so much cleaner than the Earth’s.
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Some even hope that a radio telescope operating there could pick up ultra-low frequency radio signals from deep space containing secrets of how the first stars and black holes formed in the universe.
Scientists knew these radio emissions would be a problem for the low-frequency radio spectrometer it carried, but the preventive measures they took have not worked as well as they hoped.
The device was designed to observe low-frequency radio emissions – of between 0.1 and 40 megahertz – especially intense radio bursts from the sun that may affect satellite communications here on Earth.