Royal Astronomical Society plans CosmoCube to probe cosmic dark ages
Technology
The Royal Astronomical Society is planning CosmoCube, a small satellite set to launch by decade's end.
Its goal? To listen for the universe's earliest radio signals: basically, echoes from the Cosmic Dark Ages, before stars and galaxies even existed.
CosmoCube will gather ancient hydrogen signals
CosmoCube will orbit behind the moon, where Earth's radio noise can't reach.
For 2 years, it'll collect faint signals from ancient hydrogen atoms using a very sensitive and accurately calibrated radio receiver, or radiometer, spending 40 minutes of every 2-hour loop gathering data.
Scientists hope this mission will help answer big questions about how the universe grew, shed light on mysterious dark matter, and maybe even solve puzzles about why our universe is expanding faster than expected.