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Tiny satellite will use the dark side of the Moon to eavesdrop on whispers from the early universe

cam.ac.uk · 1h · first reportShare

Tiny satellite will use the dark side of the Moon to eavesdrop on whispers from the early universe Sarah Collins Fri, 08/14/2026 - 16:00 An international team of scientists, led by the University of Cambridge, will use the dark side of the Moon as a ‘shield’ so that the satellite – called CosmoCube – can block out all the noise from Earth and listen for a faint whisper from the very early universe. This whisper, known as the 21-centimetre line, is a signal emitted by hydrogen atoms in the period between the afterglow of the Big Bang and Cosmic Dawn, when nuclear fusion lit up the first stars. No one has directly observed this era before. Detecting this signal from more than 13.5 billion years ago is extremely difficult with Earth-based telescopes, since the Earth’s ionosphere blocks the right frequencies, and interference from FM radio, satellites and telecommunications drowns it out. However, the Moon provides a natural shield. As CosmoCube orbits the far side of the Moon, it will be