In Australia, work has begun on one of the most important astronomical projects of this century: the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope, which will be the largest such observatory on Earth. Thousands of antennas will be installed in Australia and South Africa, and the SKA will be more than 50 times more powerful than what currently exists on Earth.
This project has been 30 years in the making: the first ten working on the concept and general ideas, another 10 years working on technology development and another ten years on design, negotiations, land acquisition and, above all, financing.
The SKA will be the most powerful radio telescope ever built, and thousands of antennas will be installed in Australia and South Africa, linked by a broadband fiber optic network.
Installation of the first antennas begins in the Wajarri region of Australia, and work will also begin in the Karoo region of South Africa. Currently, the investment is 500 million euros, and the budget is 2 billion euros by 2028. It is likely that the budget will be exceeded and the telescope will be fully operational later than predicted. The main thing is that it is being built.
The first milestone is due in 2024, when four satellite dishes in Australia will be able to connect with six dishes in South Africa to form the first astronomical observatory, which will then be developed further.
An astronomer quoted by The Guardian gave an example of how powerful the new observatory will be: it will be able to detect a mobile phone in the pocket of an astronaut who will be on Mars, 225 million kilometers from Earth.
The SKA will be able to detect radio signals from the very distant past of the universe, including more than 13 billion years ago, in the first hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang.
In total, approximately 200 satellite dishes and more than 131,000 small Christmas tree-sized antennas will be installed.
Eight countries participate in the project: Australia, South Africa, Great Britain, China, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland. Three more will join soon: France, Spain and Germany.
Sources: Guardian, BBC
Source: Hot News
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