A win for Australian science and astronomy with SKA telescope
Australian Science and Research Minister, Senator Chris Evans has described a decision to allow Australia to partly host the world's largest radio telescope - the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) - as an “outstanding” result.
“Importantly, it will give us the opportunity to showcase to the world our ability to successfully deliver scientific projects at this scale,” said Senator Evans.
The hosting rights for SKA will be split between Australia-New Zealand and South Africa, along with eight African partner countries.
The SKA is a $1.9 billion (€1.5 billion) radio telescope which, when complete, will allow astronomers to survey tens of millions of distant galaxies and collect vast quantities of new data about the universe - providing answers to age old questions concerning the very beginnings of the universe and the nature of dark matter.
“A significant amount of funding has already been invested into developing first class research facilities like the CSIRO Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in Western Australia,” said Senator Evans.
“Time on ASKAP is already booked out for the next five years by Australian and international astronomers, working in collaboration.”
In phase one of the SKA project, Australia will build 60 dishes equipped with Australia’s innovative phased array feed technology, which will work in conjunction with ASKAP, as well as an array of low frequency antennas, which will allow researchers to look further back in time than ever before.
Click here to read more about the SKA project. (Image shows The Square Kilometre Array dishes by night - © SKA 2011)
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