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The Square Kilometer Array

Posted by michael on from the lots-of-windex dept.

EyesWideOpen writes "A very ambitious project to build the world's largest radio telescope, named the Square Kilometer Array or SKA, is in its early design stages. As its name suggests the SKA will be one square kilometer in size if it gets built. The SKA consortium (consisting of Cal Tech, Cornell, SETI, the Max Planck Institute and Beijing Astronomical Observatory to name a few) hopes to build the telescope by 2010. "If they succeed the SKA will be so big and precise it will jump the world's current best, the American Very Large Array in New Mexico, by a factor of 100, both in sensitivity and resolution." It's interesting to note that the project is based on technology that will only exist in three, five or seven years -- to account for data rates of tens to hundreds of terabytes per second and storage in the petabytes -- so they're counting on Moore's law to hold true."

4 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Talking about SETI.... by Howzer · · Score: 5, Interesting
    This baby would actually make it possible.

    Instead of relying on super-powerful transmissions from the aliens, as we do now, we could detect, for the first time, signals at the same strength as our own and "listen" to most of our own galaxy for them.

    This is truly new, and means a SETI "hit" comes into the realm of the probable, IMO. The link is to the "SETI" page on the SKA site. It's down a couple of levels and jargonized, so I don't think I deserve a redundant mod... but you're the boss!

    1. Re:Talking about SETI.... by Angry+Toad · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I asked one of the SKA people about this very topic at a conference a couple of years ago. I'm not sure if anyone had actually done the math at that point, but they said an earthlike level of RF emission would be detectable at "a couple of dozen" light years. Beyond that it's back to looking for directed beacons again. All the same, it would be interesting to look to interstellar TV from a handfull of nearby solar systems.

      Anyone have better information on the SKA's range for earthlike RF detection?

  2. Re:Why bigger is better by dracken · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I would also like to point out that a really smart method of making the radio telescopes more powerful is to use an array of small radio telescopes and put together a composite image using signal processing.

    I had been to the GMRT in India one of the most powerful radio telescope arrays in the world. It has been designed with over 30 dishes of about 45m in diameter each. The array forms a "Y" shape. As the earth rotates, the telescopes sweep out a gigantic circle of about 25Km in diameter. Using a supercomputer and after hours of observation, they can put together a composite image equivalent to a telescope about 20Km in diameter.

    More info about GMRT and cool photos of other radio telescopes are here .

  3. Correct location: far side of the moon by Bloody+Peasant · · Score: 3, Interesting
    If cash were no object, it would be a no-brainer to simply locate the SKA (and ALMA, the EVLA, VLBA, Arecibo, the GBT, etc). on the far side of the moon. Why? Simple: no radio interference.

    You wouldn't believe how increasingly difficult it is to do decent Radio Astronomy these days. Heck, the processor in your laptop or desktop is likely radiating right in "L" band (about 1.4 GHz). We thought big hulking monitors were bad until we measured the E/M interference from flat panel displays (it's bad). We're struggling to deal with the onslaught of laptops, 802.11b wireless equipment, PDAs and the like at places like Green Bank. And don't even start to talk about Iridium...

    I speak for myself, not my employer.

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