MOONS
Right now, in our Crawford Lab, we’re busy building the MOONS instrument for the Very Large Telescope – the biggest telescope for visible and infrared light in the world! We’re leading the international team to design and build this ground-breaking instrument
Read on to learn all about MOONS, what it is, how the build is going, and what it will do
The first 12 (of what will become a 1000!) fibre positioners moving around, while testing that the fibres can be pointed accurately without any collisions
What will MOONS do?
MOONS will be an incredibly powerful and efficient tool for exploring space. Among other things, it will allow us to understand better than ever before how galaxies like our Milky Way have formed
How big is MOONS?
MOONS is big – really big. In fact, we think we’ve built the biggest cryostat in astronomy! (A cryostat is a chamber used to maintain the very low temperatures sensitive instruments like MOONS need to work properly)
Family Friendly Activities
Make your own craters
MOONS won't be used to study our Moon. But you can try this fun experiment at home to understand why our Moon looks as it does
Download the instruction sheet: Make Your Own Craters
