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Square Kilometre Array

Information about the Square Kilometre Array radio astronomy project and opportunities for industry. 

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Project overview

The international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an exciting, international project to build the world’s largest radio telescope, with fifty times the sensitivity and 10,000 times the survey speed of existing telescope arrays. The SKA will address fundamental, contemporary questions regarding the physical nature of the Universe and the laws that underpin it, and will place its host at the forefront of radio astronomy globally.

The SKA’s key science areas include:

  • Evolution of galaxies, cosmology, dark matter and energy
  • The cradle of life – searching for life and planets
  • Extreme tests of general relativity with pulsars and black holes
  • Probing the dark ages (before light) – the first black holes and stars
  • The origin and evolution of cosmic magnetism
  • Exploration of the unknown.

More information about SKA Science can be found on the International SKA website.

Australia and Southern Africa have been short listed as candidate sites for the SKA..  The final site selection decision is expected to be announced in 2012.

The SKA will comprise 3,500 15-metre antennas, mainly clustered around a core area, plus a series of remote array stations spaced across a continent-size baseline. All antennae will be linked by a fibre optic network to operate as a single instrument, and will require high performance computing capacity a thousand times greater than today’s most advanced supercomputers, able to process the equivalent data volume of the entire world wide web every hour.

Australia and New Zealand are partners in a joint bid for the SKA project, with remote arrays in New Zealand’s north and south islands offering a potential 5,000 baseline for optimum angular resolution..
The core site is located in the newly established Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO), located 315 kms north east of Geraldton in Western Australia’s Mid West region. 

This area is characterised by exceptional radio-quietness, low population density and favourable observing conditions.  The pristine condition of the site is being preserved by the exclusion of mining activities and creation of a 260km radius Mid West Radio Quiet Zone to limit incompatible radio frequency emissions.

Australian SKA Project - AuSKA

The principal collaborators in the Australia/ New Zealand SKA project are the Australian  and Western Australian Governments, the New Zealand Government and Australia's premier science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

The Australia New Zealand SKA Coordination Committee (ANZSCC), an intergovernmental body of senior officials and astronomers, is coordinating Australia's SKA activities and bid preparation, with a view to optimising the partners’ participation in the SKA.

Further information about the Australia New Zealand SKA project can be found at www.ska.gov.au.

The Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope

As a precursor to the full SKA, an Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope is being built at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) as a technology demonstrator and to prove the qualities of the candidate site.

ASKAP will be the world’s most powerful survey instrument until the SKA is in operation.

The main Pathfinder will consist of 36 antenna dishes, working together as a single telescope, and using innovative radio-wave receivers to provide an unparalleled view of the sky. ASKAP will gather more information in its first six hours of operation than has been collected by all the world’s radio telescopes in the last fifty years. Construction will be completed in 2013.

Industry opportunities and considerations

Please refer to the following presentations:

The Australian SKA Industry Capability Directory

The Australian SKA Industry Capability Directory showcases a wide range of Australian companies and organisations with the expertise and excellence required to support the development and construction of ASKAP and in time, the SKA.

For more information visit www.skacapabilities.com.au/.

Guidelines for mining activities

The Department of Minerals and Petroleum provides guidelines for mining activities related to the SKA project.

World-class radio astronomy research centre established

Australia and New Zealand's chances of securing the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project have been given a boost with Curtin University of Technology and the University of Western Australia joining forces to establish the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research. To find out more refer to our State of the Future Magazine, Edition 9 (PDF 1.27 MB) or visit www.icrar.org.

Pawsey High Performance Computing Centre for SKA Science

The bid has been further buoyed with the Federal Government’s announcement of $80 million for construction of a high performance computing centre in Perth to support data intensive research in astronomy and other fields. The Pawsey Centre will process data from ASKAP, the International Centre for Radio Astronomy esearch and potentially one day, the SKA itself.

Contact us

For further information on radio astronomy and the SKA project please contact us.

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