Identifying Habitable Exoplanets with Radio Telescopes on the Lunar Farside

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of lunar radio arrays on the Moon's farside to detect low-frequency radio emissions from exoplanet magnetospheres, aiding in identifying habitable exoplanets for future study.

Contribution

It introduces two lunar radio array concepts designed for exoplanet magnetosphere detection and discusses the necessary human exploration and site selection for deployment.

Findings

Two lunar radio array concepts suitable for exoplanet detection

Identification of candidate sites on the lunar farside

Emphasis on the importance of human exploration for deployment

Abstract

The search for habitable conditions beyond Earth is a top priority in astrophysics. The discovery of habitable exoplanets beyond our solar system will require a suite of instruments providing long-term monitoring for detection (e.g. with space and ground-based radial velocity observations), spectroscopic characterization of atmospheric and surface properties, and eventually deep chronograph-aided observations from e.g. JWST, Roman Space Telescope, and the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Detection of exoplanet magnetospheres is necessary to identify the most promising targets for follow-up characterization of biosignatures with these assets, and to provide an ensemble of objects for studies of magnetospheric conditions and atmospheric composition. Only observations of low-frequency radio emission will distinguish exoplanet magnetospheres (Hallinan et al. 2021). In this white paper, we present the two lunar radio array concepts under development that would be suitable to detect these exoplanet radio emissions. In addition, we also discuss the human exploration needed prior to construction of such lunar radio arrays while highlighting preferred candidate sites (Krolikowski & Elvis 2024) for the radio telescope.