Australia builds the world’s largest radio telescope

On April 15, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a $ 387 million ($ 310 million) investment to implement the world’s largest Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope project in the Murchison region of the state. Western Australia.
According to the VNA correspondent in Sydney, the SKA radio telescope project has the cooperation of 16 countries including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, and Portugal. Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Great Britain. In it, Australia will build and store a low radio frequency (SKA – Low) telescope consisting of 131,072 individual SKA antennas shaped like a Christmas tree. The medium radio frequency (SKA-Mid) telescope will be done by South Africa. The rest of the project complex will be handled by other countries. The project’s global construction is expected to commence in the second half of this year.

In a statement to the local press, Mr. Morrison said the project to build a new telescope will help astronomers discover more about the universe, and create more than 350 jobs during the 10-year construction period. and 230 permanent jobs within 50 years of project operation in Australia. In addition, the construction and operation of the SKA radio telescope in “Kangaroo Country” will contribute to improving the production capacity of domestic enterprises in the field of highly skilled technology and allowing the creation of major scientific breakthroughs. A budget commitment of $ 387 million including AUD 64.4 million builds a dedicated supercomputer center to process the unprecedented amount of data collected from the SKA telescope.