Closer to Radio Wave Exploration? Long-Awaited Construction of Biggest Radio Telescope Begins

16:55 GMT, 5 December 2022

Egor Shapovalov

The Square Kilometre Array is composed of many radio telescopes of different types forming a single system. The scheme is operated by the Square Kilometre Array Organisation via the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK. One square kilometer is the planned total collecting area.

Sputnik

The construction of new generation high-sensitivity radio telescopes has officially begun. The Square Kilometre Array will be the largest of its kind on Earth and will offer astrophysicists new tools to study the most fundamental aspects of our universe after it is finished in 2028.

Preparations to build the SKA system have been underway for about three decades, since the 1980s, when scientists from many countries teamed up to figure out how radio waves could provide information about the history of our universe.

In 2012, the SKA decided to host the main telescope at two sites in South Africa and Australia. These remote areas were chosen because there is no radio wave pollution produced by human technologies. This allows it to get the clearest images from space.

"This is the moment it becomes real," Phil Diamond, director general of the Square Kilometre Array Organisation, said in an interview with a British media outlet. “It's been a 30-year journey. The first 10 years were about developing the concepts and ideas. The second 10 was spent doing the technology development. And then the last decade was about detailed design, securing the sites, getting governments to agree to set up a treaty organisation [SKAO] and provide the funds to start.”

Once operational, the SKA will use its unique sensitivity to detect radio signals emitted by cosmic sources billions of light years away. This development will break new ground in radio astronomy.

"The SKA is going to contribute to so many areas of astronomy," Dr. Shari Breen, the observatory's head of science operations, said. “One would be these 'fast radio bursts' that have been detected. These things output the equivalent of an entire year's worth of energy from our Sun in just a fraction of a second. And we have no idea what they are. How is that possible? Hopefully the SKA will have an answer."

The current members of the SKA Organisation are South Africa, Australia, the UK, China, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland. France, Germany, and Spain have been undergoing admission procedures. Canada, India, Japan, South Korea, and Sweden have also announced their intention to join the project.