Co-hosting the Square Kilometre Array

Learn more about the telescopes in our video about the Square Kilometre Array.

Transcript

The Square Kilometre Array, or SKA will be the largest and most sensitive radio telescope on Earth.

Two complementary radio telescopes, located in Western Australia and South Africa, will use different types of antennas to ‘tune in’ radio frequencies

Low frequency radio waves will be received in Australia by more than 131,000 Christmas tree-like antennas, stretching over the horizon

Mid frequency radio waves will be received in South Africa by around 200 dishes

Radio emissions from the furthest reaches of space, reach Earth…and are detected by the SKA telescopes.

These are converted to digital signals and sent through fibre optic cables to supercomputers for processing into images and information for researchers.

The amount of raw data coming from the telescopes will be amazing – nearly 1 Terabyte per second – that’s like downloading 10 ultra-high definition films, every second.

This data will help answer some big questions:

Why is the expansion of the universe accelerating?

Does Einstein’s theory of general relativity hold up everywhere in the universe - especially places with extreme gravitational fields?

What did the universe look like billions of years ago when the first galaxies formed?

Is there life elsewhere in the universe?

But the most exciting part about the SKA telescope? It will answer questions we haven’t even thought of yet!

To find out more about the SKA, its purpose, and who is helping bring this massive science project to life, visit www.ska.gov.au

This video, produced by the SKA Organisation, features interviews with engineers, astronomers and team leaders around the world. Read more about the international project

Transcript

What did the Universe look like when the first galaxies formed?

How are planets formed?

How many gravitational waves are passing through me right now?

And for me the most important – is there life out there?

We’re building what will be the largest science facility ever built by mankind.

What we’re talking about is two telescopes.

These are going to spread out over literally hundreds of kilometres.

It’ll stretch out beyond the horizon.

Our site’s the middle of the Western Australia desert, far away from towns, radio interference.

We’re building hundreds of dishes in a remote location in the middle of South Africa.

It’s a hot environment, it’s a dry environment, it’s really tough.

Projects like this can only happen when we work together on a global scale.

We need astronomers to define the scope of the instrument.

We’ve got to get 500 engineers to work together over 20 countries in all the time zones in the world.

How do we build this?

It’s like building a jigsaw puzzle but the pieces keep changing.

Part A being designed in one place fits to Part B being designed literally on the other side of the world.

We’ve already started, we’ve got antennas at the site.

There’s equipment on the ground in South Africa and Australia.

Imagine the amount of data that’s flowing through the internet at any one moment.

Huge amounts of data.

That kind of level coming out steadily.

About a terabyte of data per second.

We’ll have total of 100,000 kilometres of dedicated fibre within the Observatory.

But the greatest computing burden is to take those data streams and to make sense of them.

Every year we’ll be distributing up to 700 petabytes of data.

There’s this huge range of science we’ll be tackling there’s the technology that needs to be developed to do that science.

Practically every subject of astrophysics can advance thanks to SKA.

It’s from science, to technology, to societal benefits, this is what engages countries.

SKA is a project that will be used for 20, 30, 50 years.

You want to be part of this fantastic adventure of the human mind.

I believe we're truly on the threshold of the future.

Science speaks all languages and connects the entire world.

This signature is the real beginning.

I think people will look back and think this is the moment the SKA Observatory was created.