Construction of the world’s largest radio astronomy observatory, the Square Kilometer Array, has officially begun in Australia after three decades of development.
A major intergovernmental effort, the SKA has been hailed as one of the greatest scientific projects of this century. It will allow scientists to look back to the beginning of the history of the universe when the first stars and galaxies formed. It will also be used to investigate dark energy and why the universe is expanding, and to potentially search for extraterrestrial life.
The SKA will initially include two telescope arrays: one in Wajarri Country in remote Western Australia, called SKA-Low, which includes 131,072 tree-like antennas.
SKA-Low is so named because of its sensitivity to low frequency radio signals. It will be eight times more sensitive than comparable existing telescopes and map the sky 135 times faster.
A second series of 197 traditional dishes, SKA-Mid, will be built in the Karoo region of South Africa.
Australian Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic and SKA Organization CEO Professor Philip Diamond are expected to mark the start of construction of SKA-Low at an on-site event in WA on Monday in morning
Dr Sarah Pearce, director of SKA-Low, said the observatory would “define the next fifty years for radio astronomy, chart the birth and death of galaxies, search for new types of gravitational waves and push the boundaries of the what we know about the universe.” .
SKA-Low has been described as a game changer and a major milestone in astronomy research. Illustration: Department of Industry, Science and Resources
He added: “The SKA telescopes will be sensitive enough to detect an airport radar on a planet orbiting a star tens of light-years away, so they might even answer the biggest question of all: Are we alone? in the universe?”
The SKA has been described by scientists as a game changer and a major milestone in astronomy research.
University of New South Wales astronomer Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith called it “a momentous day for global astronomy”, adding: “Over 1,000 people have worked for 20 years to make it happen, and each one will be a reality. take pride in this collective achievement today.”
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Dr Danny Price, senior postdoctoral fellow at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy, said the SKA’s sensitivity would allow astronomers to look back billions of years to the “cosmic dawn”, when the first stars were forming stars of the universe
“To put the sensitivity of the SKA into perspective, [it] could detect a cell phone in an astronaut’s pocket on Mars, 225 kilometers away,” Price said. “More excitingly, if there are intelligent societies in nearby stars with technology similar to ours, the SKA could detect the aggregate radiation ‘leaking’ from its radio and telecommunications networks, the first telescope sensitive enough to achieve this feat.”
Professor Alan Duffy, director of Swinburne University of Technology’s institute of space technology and industry, said the SKA would likely be the largest telescope ever built, “connecting continents to create a world-spanning facility that allow us to see essentially everything observable”. universe”.
“The science goals are as broad as the telescope itself, from searching for planet formation and signs of alien life, to tracing the cosmic web of dark matter and the growth of galaxies within these vast filaments that span the universe,” Duffy said.
“As with Hubble, the biggest discoveries of these next-generation telescopes are things completely unknown to today’s science. Astronomers around the world will celebrate this breakthrough [development] for what it will mean for scientists in the coming decades.”
In Australia, the SKA organization collaborates with the CSIRO to build and operate the telescopes.