SKA/ASTRON
ANNOUNCEMENTS•
After thirty years of preparation, today the construction of the largest radio telescope in the world: the Square kilometer array (SKA). International researchers will, among other things Einstein’s theory on gravity testing and the search for extraterrestrial life.
“Nearly 130,000 antennas will be installed in the Western Australian desert and 200 dishes in South Africa,” says Michiel van Haarlem in the NOS Radio 1 Newspaper. As head of the Dutch SKA office at the Netherlands Institute of Radio Astronomy, he has been involved with the project for 25 years.
The locations for the so-called Ska Observatory have been carefully selected. “These are the most peaceful places on Earth, far from civilization,” says the astronomer. Together, the two localities have an area of over 450,000 square feet.
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SKA/ASTRON
An artist’s impression of dishes in South Africa -
SKA/ASTRON
Artist’s impression of antennas in Australia
“All human activities, such as cell phones and radios, interfere with our observations. So we try to stay as far away from them as possible. These are the most remote places, and also in the southern hemisphere. We can see quite a bit of the Milky Way.”
‘First Star Pictures’
“The telescope observes the universe,” explains Van Haarlem. “Everything there is: stars and galaxies in the deep universe. It does it in radio waves: in light that is not optically visible. Our telescope also works on the wavelengths that an FM radio works on.”
Both the lowest frequencies, which are the longest waves, and the highest frequencies are received by dishes and antennas. ‘It basically allows us to look at the whole spectrum of radio emissions.’
Construction would actually start as early as 2021:
The first data should be available in 2027. “At that time we had been working for more than thirty years,” says Van Haarlem. “It will be a great relief if that telescope works well and produces good results. I hope we can get images of the formation of the first stars and galaxies in the early universe. That would be a fantastic result.”
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