The largest telescope on Earth is coming to hunt radio-waves from the early universe

By Stephanie Pappas published about 7 hours ago

After 30 years of planning, construction of the SKA Telescope, set to be the world's largest telescope array, began in South Africa on December 5.



An artist's impression of the radio telescope array planned for SKA-Low, in Australia. (Image credit: SKAO)
Construction has started on the largest telescope array on Earth.

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which will contain hundreds of radio antennae spread across two continents, is now under construction in both South Africa's Karoo region and Western Australia's Murchison Shire.

Together, the two sites – named SKA-Mid and SKA-Low, for the types of radio frequencies they will primarily detect – will enable high-resolution imaging of the whole sky, according to the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), the organization that oversees the telescope. The sensitivity of the telescope will allow scientists to pick up even faint signals left over from the earliest days of the universe.

"The SKA project has been many years in the making," SKAO council chair Catherine Cesarsky said in an address at the South Africa site Monday (Dec. 5)(opens in new tab). "Today, we gather here to mark another important chapter in this 30-year journey that we've been on together. A journey to deliver the world's largest scientific instrument."

The planning stages of the telescope have spanned three decades, with pre-planning and contracting picking up speed in the past 18 months. The goal is to complete the telescope arrays by 2030.



An artist's impression of the planned SKA-Mid (left) and SKA-Low sites in South Africa and Australia. (Image credit: SKAO)

More:
https://www.livescience.com/ska-telescope-construction-begins