Construction Of World's Most Powerful Radio Telescope Begins In Western Australia

The Square Kilometre Array will be split between remote observatories in Western Australia's Mid-West and South Africa's Karoo region.

After decades of planning, construction on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world's largest radio-astronomy observatory, officially begins today, The Guardian reported. The Square Kilometre Array will be split between remote observatories in Western Australia's Mid-West and South Africa's Karoo region, combining to produce a telescope with a collecting area of about one square kilometre. 

Ceremonies will occur today on both Australian and South African sites to 'break ground' and astronomers and local communities are expected to travel to both remote sites to celebrate the milestone with officials from the SKA Observatory (SKAO).

While the Australian site, also known as SKA-Low will comprise over 130,000 Christmas tree-like antennas, the African site known as SKA-Mid will comprise the second array of 197 traditional dishes. SKA-Low will detect frequencies between 50 megahertz and 350 megahertz and SKA-Mid will pick up frequencies between 350 megahertz and 15.4 gigahertz.

Hailed as one of the biggest scientific projects of this century, the telescopes will enable scientists to look back to early in the history of the universe when the first stars and galaxies were formed. It will also be used to investigate dark energy and why the universe is expanding, and to potentially search for extraterrestrial life.