Artist impression of SKA1 wide field low-frequency aperture array, March 2015.Credit: SKA Organisation / Eye Candy Animation
Parliamentary secretary for industry and science, Karen Andrews, has announced a new step towards realising Australia’s hosting of a next-generation radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
Visiting Australia’s SKA host site at Murchison in remote Western Australia, Parliamentary Secretary Andrews said recent pre-negotiation meetings in Brussels had cleared the way for treaty negotiations to begin.
“Treaty negotiations reflect a new chapter of engagement within the global project because they will solidify the rights and responsibilities of SKA member nations, paving the way for construction to begin in 2018,” Mrs Andrews said.
“Australian Government representatives are working to provide the best outcomes for our research, engineering and manufacturing communities, and for the SKA project as a whole.”
Treaty negotiations come as SKA preparations progress in Australia. The SKA radio telescope is an international project to build the world’s largest radio telescope; consisting of thousands of antennas linked together by high bandwidth optical fibre. According to CSIRO, the SKA will be 50 times as sensitive as the best existing radio telescopes and will have a survey speed 10,000 times faster than its nearest current-day rival.
“This amazing world class observatory with its two precursor radio telescopes demonstrates that Australia is ready and able to host this exciting telescope project,” Mrs Andrews said.
“Additional activity throughout Australia, including the announcement of Cisco’s Internet of Everything Innovation Centre and further funding for an Australian Laureate Fellowship is also readying the capabilities necessary to make the most of this opportunity.”
The site’s two precursor telescopes, the Murchison Widefield Array, and CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder are both already operating.
“ASKAP’s recent discovery of gas from a galaxy five billion light-years away proves that they’re world leading,” Mrs Andrews said. “There is no other site in the world that is radio-quiet enough for this discovery to have been made.”
