Humanity has explored most of its home planet, and has now turned its head towards the stars.
There are many huge telescopes around the world peering up at the night sky, and now another massive project is being constructed.
It will be the world’s largest radio observatory, comprised of two sites located in separate countries.
Sites in Australia and South Africa will be “supported by institutions and facilities around the globe”, officials say.
The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) will have a photon collecting area of more than a million square meters.
Its telescopes will observe the sky at different radio frequencies.
Research using the cutting edge technology is set to help shed light on how the universe expanded, what it looked like when the first galaxies formed and if there is life on other planets or moons.
The images it produces will be between 10 and 100 times the fidelity of current instruments. There will be 197 steerable antennae.
The longest distance between two of them is set to be around 93 miles.
The vast project was conceived in the 1990s, and then further developed and designed by the late-2010s. Construction began in 2022.
In January 2024, it was reported that the first prototype dish of the SKA-Mid telescope constructed on site in South Africa had achieved “first light”.
The SKAO will “transform our understanding of the Universe,” experts in charge of its development say, “tackling some of the most fundamental scientific questions of our time”.
In January, Sweden signed the SKA Observatory Convention at the country’s embassy in Londo, meaning it will soon join the SKA Observatory as a member.
India’s membership of the observatory has been also been marked. In November, Germany became a member.
In October, SKAO’s Director-General, Professor Philip Diamond said: “The vast majority of our construction related contracts have been placed and across the world there is a vibrant community of industry, institutes and teams active across the range of work packages.”
