Posted 10 Dec. 2022 at 18:03
It is “one of the most important scientific endeavors of humanity”, according to the director general of the SKA organization. Work on the radio telescope of the same name, for “Square kilometer array”, was launched this week in Western Australia. On the program: the construction of tens of thousands of antennas in the middle of the Australian and South African deserts.
Once the work is completed, around 2028, the assembly should form the most powerful radio telescope in the world and provide answers to some of the greatest astrophysical mysteries.
1. It must provide answers to fundamental questions about the universe
Featuring unprecedented resolution and sensitivity superior to that of téléscope Hubble, the SKA radio telescope should be able to detect a cell phone that is in an astronaut’s pocket on Mars, which is 225 million kilometers from Earth, according to Danny Price of the Curtin Institute for Radio Astronomy.
He must thus study some of the most violent cosmic phenomena, such as supernovae, black holes and the very first traces of the “big bang”, the gigantic explosion which gave birth to the universe more than 13 billion years ago. .
The project will “track the birth and death of galaxies, search for new types of gravitational waves, and push the boundaries of what we know about the universe,” said Sarah Pearce, director of the telescope. One of its main tasks will be to retrace the history of the formation of hydrogen.
2. He has tens of thousands of parables in the desert
The SKA radio telescope is named after the one square kilometer collection area it will occupy. A total of 131,000 dipole antennas, the shape of which is similar to that of a Christmas tree, will be distributed in the desert of Western Australia, on the traditional lands of the Aboriginal Wajarri people. The site has been baptized “Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara”, which in the local language means “sharing the sky and the stars”. They will be supplemented by 200 satellite dishes in South Africa.
The choice of site fell on Australia and South Africa because these two countries have immense expanses of desert with little exposure to radio waves: ideal conditions for such telescopes.
3. The project could cost 2 billion euros
First imagined in 1993, the SKA radio telescope took about 10 years to design. An additional decade was devoted to its technological development, then another to securing the sites and creating the organization that manages them. In total, 8 countries participated in its financing, including South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, China, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland. They are united within the Square Kilometer Array Organization (SKAO), whose headquarters are located in the United Kingdom.
France, Spain and Germany are also set to join the organization, while Canada, India, Sweden, South Korea and Japan have announced their intention to join. If the total cost of the project is estimated at two billion euros, the expenses it has already generated amount to 500 million euros.
With AFP