World astronomers planning major new telescope

Leading international scientists and engineers will meet in Geraldton, Western Australia, next week to discuss building the world's largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The meeting is the annual planning meeting for the international community interested in advancing the SKA telescope.

This new telescope will be in the form of a large number of small array-stations, scattered over a large area and connected with optic-fibre cable. The total collecting area of the array-stations will be one square kilometre.

"This meeting will bring together the world's experts to discuss the progress of this major global project and develop new ideas and strategies," says Dr Michelle Storey, Strategic Relationship Manager at CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF).

CSIRO researcher, Dr Peter Hall, Chair of the SKA International Engineering and Management Team, says that a focus of this year's meeting will be new prototypes and systems to demonstrate the advanced technology concepts that are needed to make the SKA a reality.

"A session of this year's workshop will focus on the application of supercomputer modeling to the design of the SKA," Dr Hall says.

Due to its increased size and sensitivity, the SKA will probe the beginnings of the Universe and provide insights into other mysteries such as the hidden energy of the Universe, and how stars form. It may also be used in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.

It is also possible that the project will have other spin-offs, Dr Storey says. "We cannot predict the breakthrough science that will emerge from using the SKA, but we know that the ICT development required to be developed for its implementation will have application in many areas of industry.

"This means that it may have many spin-offs for industry. And it will allow considerable input from industry to develop and construct the telescope. Industry participation in the annual workshops is growing. This year there are representatives from firms specialising in fields as diverse as microelectronics and civil engineering."

One of the topics on the agenda will be where to locate this new telescope. Australia is a good candidate host country.

"Some of the advantages we have are a radio-quiet environment, an excellent view of the centre of our Galaxy, and high-technology infrastructure," Dr Hall says.

The meeting in Geraldton will allow the world's leading SKA scientists to learn firsthand about the kind of remote Australian environment where SKA could be sited in Australia. The decision on where to site the SKA will be made in 2006.

There are currently twelve countries planning the SKA and several others that will be involved in the implementation. The 2003 SKA International Workshop will be held from July 27- July 31 2003. The SKA Workshop will be followed by a two-day meeting of the International SKA Steering Committee on August 1 and 2 (also in Geraldton).

Item provided courtesy of The CSIRO