Why and Where Do We Want to Put Telescopes on the Moon?

Virtual seminar, 1 July 2026. Time: 2:00pm–3:00pm ET / 11:00am–12:00pm PT. Speaker: Nivedita Mahesh, CU Boulder. The talk surveys the Moon as a platform for astrophysics across four complementary regimes. At low radio frequencies, the radio-quiet lunar farside opens a window onto the cosmological Dark Ages and the magnetospheres of exoplanets.

In the mid-band gravitational-wave regime, the Moon’s low seismic activity can bridge the sensitivity gap between terrestrial and space-based detectors. At ultraviolet wavelengths, the lunar vacuum and long coherence times enable higher-resolution stellar imaging than is possible on Earth.

In the far-infrared, cold, stable conditions in permanently shadowed regions provide a naturally cryogenic, absorption-free site for studying star and planet formation and the obscured Universe. The speaker will share updates from mission concept leads within the Astrophysics from the Moon, Mars & Beyond (AMMB) Science Interest Group.

United States, Boulder, Colorado

moon, lunar farside, radio frequencies, dark ages, exoplanets, gravitational waves, ultraviolet imaging, far-infrared, permanently shadowed, cryogenic