JAKARTA – The Square Kilometer Array (SKA), a joint project between Australia and South Africa, will become the world’s largest radio telescope. The project will be completed by the end of this decade.
This telescope is claimed to be more sensitive than existing radio telescopes. Even SKA will allow scientists to study the universe in more detail than ever before.
The telescope will be located in South Africa and Australia, with international headquarters located at Jodrell Bank, in the UK.
Nearly 200 medium frequency dishes, including the MeerKAT facility which was officially launched in July 2018, will be located in the Karoo region of South Africa. Meanwhile around 130,000 low frequency antennas will be deployed in Western Australia.
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Both locations are far from sources of radio frequency interference which allows for very sensitive measurements to be made.
The SKA will consist of two instruments, SKA-mid (dish) and SKA-low (antenna).
The signals from the dish will be transported via optical fiber to a central computer where they will be combined using a technique called interferometry.
Similarly, the signals from all the antennas will also be combined and converted into scientific data that astronomers will use to study the universe.
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