Earth’s radio waves recorded from the Moon for the first time

On February 22, a significant milestone in space exploration was achieved when the lunar lander Odysseus, developed by Intuitive Machines, successfully touched down near the Moon’s South Pole. 

This event is hailed as the “dawn of radio astronomy from the Moon” by Jack Burns, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado Boulder. 

Major achievement In radio astronomy 

The lander, which had to overcome various technical difficulties, deployed four antennas to record radio waves around the lunar surface, marking a major achievement in the field.

Burns, a co-investigator on the Radio wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photo Electron Sheath (ROLSES) experiment aboard Odysseus, will provide updates on the data collected and discuss future plans for radio astronomy from the Moon at the 244th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Madison, Wisconsin. 

“It was heroic for Intuitive Machines to land under these conditions, and to deploy our antennas, take some data and get that data back to Earth,” said Burns.

Capturing radio waves from Earth 

The ROLSES experiment, led by Natchimuthuk Gopalswamy at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, aimed to record a wide range of radio emissions near the Moon and in deep space. Despite the mission’s challenges, ROLSES managed to capture unique data, including radio waves from Earth, which provided a perspective of Earth as an exoplanet. 

“We viewed Earth as an exoplanet, or a planet orbiting another star,” Burns explained. “That enables us to ask: What would our radio emissions from Earth look like if they came from an extraterrestrial civilization on a nearby exoplanet?”

The challenging journey of Odysseus 

Odysseus’ journey was part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which aims to deploy spacecraft built by private companies on the Moon. This mission was the first to achieve a “soft landing,” despite the lander tipping onto its side during the process. 

Among other challenges, Odysseus had to rely entirely on its optical camera system for navigation due to the failure of its laser-guided system.

One of the ROLSES antennas overheated and popped out during the journey, allowing the team to capture radio waves from Earth for nearly 90 minutes. 

This data, more comprehensive than a similar experiment led by Carl Sagan from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s, could help identify similar signals from distant planets, potentially indicating intelligent life.

Radio emissions from the early universe 

NASA has approved a second ROLSES experiment for another CLPS mission, likely in 2026. Burns is also involved in the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night), scheduled to land on the Moon’s far side in 2026. 

This location will provide an ideal environment to study radio emissions from the universe’s early “Dark Ages,” offering insights into cosmic evolution.

“Because NASA is going to send two or three landers to the Moon every year, we have a way to upgrade our instruments and learn from what goes wrong in a way we haven’t been able to do since the early days of the space program,” said Burns.

The continuous improvements and frequent lunar missions hold great potential for advancing space exploration, allowing rapid learning and innovation reminiscent of the early days of the space program.

Earth’s radio waves

Earth’s radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths longer than infrared light. These waves are used for a variety of applications, from communication to navigation. 

Sources

Radio waves are generated both naturally and by human activities. Natural sources include lightning and astronomical objects, while human-generated radio waves are used in broadcasting, mobile phones, and wireless networking.

Propagation 

The atmosphere of Earth plays a critical role in how radio waves propagate, affecting their range and clarity. 

For instance, different layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, like the ionosphere, can reflect or refract radio waves, enabling them to travel long distances around the globe. This property is crucial for long-range communication without satellites.

Low-frequency radio waves 

Additionally, the Earth itself emits low-frequency radio waves, which can be studied to understand geological and atmospheric conditions. 

In the broader context of the universe, Earth’s radio emissions are just a tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which includes all forms of light and radiation, each with its own unique properties and applications.

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