Currently under development, the SKA or Square Kilometre Array, will be the world's largest radio-interferometry based telescope, with its antennas having an effective collecting area of approximately one square kilometer (1 000 000 m2). For comparison, LOFAR, a radio interferometer currently under construction in Norway and spanning many European countries, will have a coverage of 300 000 m2.
SKA Animation:
Location! Location!
Only two countries of the original four, South Africa and Australia, are still being considered as the central location for this telescope. I say central location as this telescope is huge! Observing stations shall span the continents from either South Africa to Madagascar or from Western Australia extending across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand. Being Australian I am of course barracking for Western Australia to win the bid. Regardless of the winner, the data from this revolutionary telescope will be made public for anyone to access and work with!
One of the major requirements for the location is the presence of a radio quiet zone which not only exists currently but shall remain into the future. The final decision for its location shall be made in 8 days (February 7th) and announced later in the month. So an exciting and suspenseful month lies ahead!!
Put it on my tab!
At a budgeted cost of 1.5 Billion € (~ $2 Billion USD) this telescope represents a huge investment into astronomical research. It is a truly international endeavor funded by partners from 20 nations from the UK and Australia to Portugal, Poland and Russia.
Facts about the SKA.
- When completed, the SKA shall have the highest sensitivity and angular resolution (< 0.1”) of any radio-interferometer. Consisting of high frequency dishes and medium and low frequency aperture arrays, the antenna will mostly be focused at a central locale with the remainder forming 5 spiral arms up to 3000 km long!
- It shall be 50 times more powerful and have a surveying capability 10000 times greater than any telescope currently in use.
- It will generate 160 Gigabits of data every second from each dish! With 3000 dishes that’s 10 times the rate at which data is uploaded and downloaded from the internet World-Wide! If we include the low and medium frequency arrays this data rate rises to 100 times.
So what do we do with this much data?
How can we store it?
And most importantly, how can we find the useful data in this cosmic expanse of 0’s and 1’s?
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| The data produced will require supercomputers 50 times more powerful than those used in 2010. |
FUN FACT: The fiber optics used to connect the individual arrays, placed end to end, would wrap around the Earth’s circumference twice!
The technology for the SKA is still under design and development with precursor and pathfinder telescopes such as ASKAP and MeerKAT currently under construction to aid in the development and testing of both the components and data reduction and analysis software.
What astronomers wish to do with it?
1. Study galaxy evolution by mapping hydrogen distribution and investigate the role of dark energy in the expansion of the universe.
2. Test Einstein's Theory of General Relativity by; (a) looking for gravitational waves using pulsars, and (b) observing the theory's robustness in extreme conditions such as black holes!
3. Understand the origins of magnetic fields on a cosmic scale and their effects on matter, especially on galaxies.
4. Study the cosmic "Dark Ages", a period of about 500 million years, when the first luminous celestial objects formed.
5. Search for radio transmissions (suggesting possible Extra-Terrestrial Civilisations!!) and observe thermal emissions of possible exoplanet formation.
These are just some of the projects for which answers are sought. With all this data though...
What UNEXPECTED treasures will be found?
What new DISCOVERIES will be made?
What new QUESTIONS will be raised?
Acknowledgements :
http://www.atnf.csiro.au
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Kilometre_Array
http://www.skatelescope.org/
Acknowledgements :
http://www.atnf.csiro.au
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Kilometre_Array
http://www.skatelescope.org/
Great post. And what a lovely time line.
ReplyDeleteBows to blog superiority. This was so cool when you showed me the scale. I can't wait to see what comes from this project.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sarah! :)
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Keen to see the data! Waiting for the first data from ASKAP as well to see what it shows.
Really nice post Jason. SKA will be amazing. Now let's hope they do the right thing and build it in Western Australia (where the radio sky is quieter).
ReplyDeleteThis telescope is going to be really cool. It's primary mission is to detect a tiny little atomic transition of hydrogen when the electron flips its spin. The light emitted has wavelength = 21 cm. Yeah, that's a long wavelength. But the light that SKA wants to see is very far away, in the distant universe, where everything is moving so fast away from us that the light has now shifted by a factor of 10-20 times. So now we're talking wavelengths of a few meters. Anyway, there was a lot of hydrogen back then. About 13 billion years ago nearly all of that hydrogen was destroyed by UV light from stars (we think). SKA hopes to map the transition from a neutral to an ionized universe.
Kind of surprised by this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nature.com/news/south-africa-wins-science-panel-s-backing-to-host-ska-telescope-1.10205
Likewise. Although with the economy as it is, I can imagine that the idea of lower construction costs is appealing...
ReplyDelete