[feb] Square Kilometre Array Flashcards
1
Q
Context?
A
Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) Council held its maiden meeting and approved the establishment of the world’s largest radio telescope.
2
Q
About SKAO?
A
- new intergovernmental organisation dedicated to radio astronomy and is headquartered in the UK.
- 10 members(Australia, Canada, China, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK)
3
Q
What are radio telescopes?
A
- Unlike optical telescopes, radio telescopes can detect invisible gas and, therefore, they can reveal areas of space that may be obscured by cosmic dust.
- The first radio signals were detected by physicist Karl Jansky in the 1930s.
- The Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, which was the second-largest single-dish radio telescope in the world, collapsed in December 2020. The telescope was built in 1963.
4
Q
About SKA Telescope?
A
- proposed to be the largest radio telescope in the world.
- will be located in Africa and Australia
- completion is expected to take nearly a decade at a cost of over £1.8 billion.