Square Kilometer Array Telescope

About Square Kilometer Array Telescope:

• It is a state of the art, mega science international facility to build the world’s biggest and most sensitive radio telescope for addressing a wide variety of cutting-edge science goals.
• Location: It is co-located in Australia (SKA-Low) and South Africa (SKA-Mid) with operational headquarters in the UK, and is expected to revolutionize radio astronomy.
  • The array in South Africa is named SKA-Mid while the one in Australia is called SKA-Low, the names reflecting the frequency ranges they operate in.
  • It consists of a total of 1,31,072 lakh antennas, each measuring two-metres in height, will collectively form the SKA-Low.
  • The SKA-Mid will comprise 197 large parabolic dish antennas. Offering the largest bandwidth of observations, SKA-Low will operate from Australia in the frequency bandwidth 50 – 350 Mega Hertz while SKA-Mid is designated to operate in 350 MHz – 15.4 Gigahertz band in South Africa.
• The facility is meant to observe the universe in a new way, and probe questions related to the origins of the universe, formation and evolution of galaxies and seeking the origins of life.
• India became a member of SKA in December 2022.
• Other countries involved in this project are - Canada, China, India, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

Q1: What is a telescope?

It is a tool that astronomers use to see faraway objects. Most telescopes, and all large telescopes, work by using curved mirrors to gather and focus light from the night sky.

Source: Square Kilometer Array, world’s largest radio telescope in making, becomes partially functional