Members agree dual site for SKA radio telescope
Members of the SKA Organisation have agreed on a dual site for the Square Kilometre Array telescope, the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope.
Due to be built in Australia-New Zealand and South Africa, the €1.5bn (£1.2bn) project will consist of thousands of radiowave antennas all linked together by high-bandwidth optical fibre. The antennas will work together, acting as a single large instrument with a collecting area approximating 1km2.
According to CSIRO, the telescope aims to address fundamental questions about the evolution of the universe including the formation of black holes, the origins of the first stars and the generation of magnetic fields in space.
The area that will be used for the core of Australian SKA activity is the CSIRO-operated Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO).
The site is located 350km north-east of Geraldton in Western Australia and is claimed to be a world-class environment for radio astronomy.
The site already hosts CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope as well as other experiments such as the Murchison Widefield Array.
Chief of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Dr Philip Diamond said: ‘ASKAP is a precursor SKA instrument for which construction is almost completed.
Register now to continue reading
Thanks for visiting The Engineer. You’ve now reached your monthly limit of news stories. Register for free to unlock unlimited access to all of our news coverage, as well as premium content including opinion, in-depth features and special reports.
Benefits of registering
-
In-depth insights and coverage of key emerging trends
-
Unrestricted access to special reports throughout the year
-
Daily technology news delivered straight to your inbox
Radio wave weapon knocks out drone swarms
Probably. A radio-controlled drone cannot be completely shielded to RF, else you´d lose the ability to control it. The fibre optical cable removes...