Keep in the loop with the latest news on Australia's bid for the Square Kilometre Array in our updates section. We also feature permanent content as a reference on everything you need to know about this fascinating endeavour.

Latest Updates:

2012

• February 13: Gearing up for SKA data deluge

2011

• November 7: Big power boost for ASKAP
• October 13: Pathways to SKA Science in Australasia
• October 9: Perth SKA low frequency workshop a success
• September 20: theSkynet launches in Perth
• August 15: Sshhh! Boollardy's radio quiet zone
• July 19: The Australian SKA Pathfinder and the bid to host the SKA
• June 29: iVEC@Murdoch Supercomputer opens
• May 27: Pathfinder telescope finds its path
• May 27: Scientists work on pathfinder implementation for SKA
• May 27: 40 million reasons to support the SKA
• 15 April: Discover SKA - is here
• 15 April: From green power to dark matter
• 8 April: SKA groups sign on
• 30 March: SKA antenna innovations
• 16 March: Oz and NZ PMs praise joint SKA bid
• 16 March: Get to know your SKA scientist
• 16 March: WA researchers inching closer to SKA
• 22 February: SKA on ABC's Catalyst program

2010

• 21 December: SKA animation available 
• 25 November: How much do you know about ASKAP?
• 12 October: ACMA to cut 'radio gaga' for SKA
• 23 September: Clean and renewable energy 'powers' SKA bid
• 16 September: The Hitchhiker's Guide to building a galaxy
• 17 June: More good news for SKA bid

 

Your Guide to the Square Kilometre Array

The Square Kilometre Array, often referred to as the "SKA", is a truly international radio telescope project; aiming to be fifty times more powerful than the world's largest existing telescope.

The telescope is named the “Square Kilometre Array” because it is planned to have a collecting area of one square kilometre.

 

The fully operational telescope will consist of thousands of individual antennas spread over 100 array stations at various locations across the chosen host country. Worth an estimated AU $1.8 billion dollars it will be able to probe key questions in cosmology and physics, even able to look at the early origins of the universe.

As announced at the end of September 2006, Western Australia and South Africa are the two finalists being considered to host the SKA. The final decision for the SKA's location will be made towards the end of the decade and construction is expected to begin 2013.

Australia's proposed core site would accommodate the largest array, comprising several hundred antennas and would have exceptional radio quietness and observing conditions.

Radio quietness is essential for good radio astronomy and the Mid West Radio Quiet Zone (RQZ) is protected by a “Radio communications Assignment and Licensing Instruction", which prevents excess radio noise in the area.

If Australia is chosen the SKA's critical central array, the core site would be in Murchison Shire in the mid-west of Western Australia with other array stations spread around WA, Australia and possibly New Zealand. Each array station would be composed of a number of closely grouped antennas and the overall pattern of the SKA could be a huge asymmetric spiral.

The SKA will help to answer fundamental questions about the universe.

Scientists will be able to probe previously unexplored parts of the universe and focus on five key projects:

Cradle of Life – this project will explore whether there are Earth-like planets around other stars, and whether they host intelligent life, thus helping to answer the eternal question of whether there is life elsewhere in the universe;

Probing the Dark Ages – this will explore the first black holes and stars, and help to answer the question of what happened after the big bang and before the first stars and galaxies formed;

The origin and evolution of Cosmic Magnetism – this will explore how magnetism affects the formation of stars and galaxies, and what maintains the present-day magnetic fields of galaxies, stars and planets;

Strong field tests of gravity using pulsars and black holes - this will help to test whether Einstein's theory of general relativity is the last word on gravity, for example, whether its predictions for black holes are correct, and whether the cosmos is filled with a gravitational wave background;

Galaxy evolution, cosmology, and dark matter - this will explore how galaxies are born and how they evolve, and seek a better understanding of "dark energy" that fills the majority of the universe.

Already in production is the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP).

This is a smaller version of the SKA being built on the SKA site in Western Australia, it will be a forerunner to the SKA and will help in deciding which nation will be selected for the SKA.

The principal collaborators in the Australian SKA project are the Australian Government, the State of Western Australia and Australia’s premier science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Several Australian universities are also actively engaged, with other state governments likely to be involved in due course. International partners include the USA, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, India and several European countries.