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VIRTUALISATION Australia hopeful of radio telescope Square Kilometer Array
VIRTUALISATION Australia hopeful of radio telescope Square Kilometer Array | Australia hopeful of radio telescope Square Kilometer Array |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Thursday, 10 April 2008 | |
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The planned operating range of frequencies for the SKA telescope is from 0.10 to 25 gigahertz (GHz), but designers are hopeful that this planned range can be eventually expanded to include 0.06 to 35 GHz. At such a size, the SKA will be an estimated fifty times more sensitive than telescopes currently in operation. In fact, SKA will be designed so that it will become the most sensitive radio telescope ever built. The SKA will be able to, for example, observe the universe when it was less than one billion years old. The current age of the universe is approximately 13.73 billion years, give or take 100 million years or so. The SKA telescope will also contain the ability for several astronomers to use the telescope at one time and to look at several parts of the sky all at once. The final design of the telescope is expected to be completed later in 2008. The final site of the telescope is expected to be announced in 2009 or 2010. The construction of the SKA is scheduled to begin in 2011. If construction plans are kept on schedule, the telescope will become usable in 2014 and fully operational in 2020. The location for the SKA telescope has yet to be decided. Several sites are now being considered. Among them is in Australia, specifically a location at Boolardy in Western Australia (within the Shire of Murchison), which is west of Meekatharra and northeast of Gerladton. Substations will be as far away as New Zealand. Another possible SKA location is in South Africa, in the Karoo area of the Northern Cape Providence, with substations in Kenya, Ghana, Madagascar, and Mauritius. A location in southwest China, in the Karst Region of Guizhous, is also being considered, as well as a location in Argentina. The International SKA Forum is helping to decide the future of the SKA project. Please read on. |
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