The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER) has invited all Australians to share an online view of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world’s largest and most capable radio telescope being built.
In a statement, DISER said scientists and engineers from more than 20 countries were designing and building the SKA in Western Australia.
“It’s one of humanity’s biggest scientific endeavours and will open up endless possibilities to expand our understanding of the universe,” the Department said.
“The SKA telescope consists of many thousands of antennas collecting signals on both sides of the globe.
“It will be more than 10 times more sensitive and much faster at surveying other galaxies than any current radio telescope.”
DISER said Australia’s SKA telescope would be able to pick up low-frequency data as it was situated at a remote site in WA, far away from towns and radio interference.
“Its 131,072 antennas will spread across 65 kilometres,” it said.
“Another telescope will monitor mid-frequency radio waves via hundreds of dishes in South Africa.
“Together, the telescopes will help answer some of our biggest questions about the universe.”
DISER said these included: Why is the universe expanding? What did the young universe look like? Is there life beyond Earth and what does it look like?
It said the telescopes may also be able to answer whether Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity still applied in the most extreme areas of the universe.
The Department said data the telescopes collected would be processed using super-computing facilities, with several times the processing speed of any current super-computer.
“Construction of the telescopes will start in early 2022 and take around seven years to complete,” it said.
DISER said the public could view the Australian SKA site at the Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory online.
It said the virtual tour showed 360-degree views of key locations and included information about the telescopes and their precursors.
The virtual tour can be accessed at this PS News link.
