Square Kilometre Array

Many lands are working together.

They are building a giant tool for space. It is called the SKA.

It uses many small parts to listen to the sky. Part of it is in Australia. Part of it is in South Africa. This helps it see the stars very well. It will be much faster than tools we have now.

This big project helps us learn about our world.

Many countries are working together on a big project.

They are building a giant tool called the Square Kilometre Array. We call it the SKA. It is a radio telescope. This tool listens to signals from space.

The SKA is split into two main parts. One part is in Australia. We call this part SKA-low. It uses many small antennas. The other part is in South Africa. We call this part SKA-mid. It uses many large dishes.

These parts work together to act like one giant telescope. This helps it see very clear images of the sky. The SKA will be very powerful. It will be 50 times more sensitive than other tools. It can also study the sky much faster. It can survey the sky 10,000 times faster than before. The headquarters for this project is in the United Kingdom. It is at the Jodrell Bank Observatory. Many nations help build and run the SKA. This includes countries like Italy, China, and India. Construction began in late 2022.

The Square Kilometre Array, or SKA, is a massive project to build a giant radio telescope.

Instead of using light like our eyes, it listens to radio signals from deep space. This tool is very important for understanding our universe. It will be 50 times more sensitive than any other radio instrument. It can also survey the sky ten thousand times faster than we can now.

This speed and power will help scientists see things we never could before.

The SKA works by using many different parts to act like one huge eye.

It is split into two main sections in the Southern Hemisphere. The SKA-low part is in Australia and uses many small antennas. These antennas look like little Christmas trees. The SKA-mid part is in South Africa and uses large dishes.

These parts use a method called aperture synthesis to combine their signals. This makes them act like a single, giant telescope. They can even link to other telescopes thousands of kilometers away to get very clear images.

People have been planning this amazing tool for a long time.

The idea was first conceived in 1991. An international working group was set up in 1993 to help. In the early days, China even proposed a different plan called KARST. They wanted to use natural limestone holes in the ground for their dishes. Later, the project moved from a simple collaboration to an official organization. This helped many countries work together on the big task.

Many different nations are helping to build and run the SKA.

The Square Kilometre Array Observatory was founded in Rome in March 2019. Seven countries were the first members, including Australia, China, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Since then, the group has grown to 14 members. Construction officially began on 5 December 2022 in both South Africa and Australia. The headquarters for the whole project is at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in England.

You can think of the SKA as a giant ear listening to the stars. Just as a large ear can hear soft sounds from far away, the SKA hears tiny radio whispers from space. It is being built in places like the Murchison region in Australia. This area is very quiet, which helps the telescope work better. The project is divided into phases, starting with SKA1. Scientists hope to begin scientific observations after the first phase is ready. It is a huge step forward for how we see the cosmos.

The Square Kilometre Array, known as the SKA, is a massive international radio telescope project.

Unlike traditional telescopes that capture visible light, the SKA listens to radio waves from deep space. This project is an intergovernmental effort to build a tool of unprecedented power. The name refers to the total collecting area the telescope will eventually have. This target is approximately one square kilometre of surface area. The SKA will be 50 times more sensitive than any existing radio instrument. It will also survey the sky more than ten thousand times faster than previous technology.

The SKA operates using complex scientific techniques to simulate a single, massive instrument. It uses aperture synthesis to combine signals from thousands of small antennas spread across a wide area. This technique allows the array to act as one giant telescope. It also uses very-long-baseline interferometry to link with other radio telescopes located thousands of kilometres away. This process provides extremely high angular resolution, which means very clear images. The telescope is divided into two main sub-arrays based on frequency. The SKA-low array uses a phased array of low-frequency antennas. These look like "Christmas-tree" antennas and cover 50 to 350 MHz.

The second part is the SKA-mid array, which uses several thousand dish antennas. These dishes cover a higher frequency range from 350 MHz to 14 GHz. The SKA-mid antennas will likely use an offset Gregorian design. This design features a height of 15 metres and a width of 12 metres.

The physical layout of the project includes three distinct regions. A central region contains the main cores in South Africa and Western Australia. This core contains about half of the total collecting area. A mid region extends out to 180 km with randomly placed dishes. An outer region reaches up to 3000 km using five spiral arms.

The history of the SKA began with a concept in 1991. An international working group was established in 1993 to move the idea forward. In the early planning stages, China proposed a different project called KARST. They suggested using natural limestone depressions in their southwestern provinces for large dishes. Eventually, the project became an independent, not-for-profit intergovernmental organization. The Square Kilometre Array Observatory, or SKAO, was founded in Rome in March 2019. The headquarters for the SKAO was placed at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the United Kingdom.

Building such a massive system requires many different nations to work together. The SKAO consortium was started by seven founding members in 2019. These included Australia, China, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Since then, the membership has grown to 14 countries. Recent members include Switzerland, Spain, Canada, Germany, and India. India joined the project in early 2024 with a financial commitment of ₹1,250 crore. The construction phase officially started on 5 December 2022. This event was celebrated by delegations from the participating countries in both Australia and South Africa.

The project is being built in two main phases. The current phase is called SKA1, or simply SKA. This phase aims to provide an operational array for scientific use. A possible future phase is called SKA2, which would be significantly larger. The SKA-low part is being built in the Murchison region of Australia. This site is on the traditional lands of the Wajarri Aboriginal people. The area is called _Yulgarrin_, which means "quiet" in the Wajarri language. This location was chosen because it is a radio-quiet zone. This quietness is necessary to prevent interference from other electronic signals.

The SKA is a major technological and economic undertaking. In 2014, the project was estimated to cost €1.8 billion. This included €650 million for the first phase alone. Some reports suggest the total project value is around A$3 billion. Because the project has lasted nearly 30 years, it has faced many delays and rising costs. To handle the massive amounts of data, scientists are looking at new supercomputing solutions. The Department of Atomic Energy in India and UK Research and Innovation are investigating these facilities. These computers will be essential to process the signals the SKA hears from the cosmos.