The SKA will be a set of thousands of antennas, not a single giant instrument, spread over 3000 kilometres, but with half of the antennas located in a central region 5 kilometres across. The SKA will be 50 times more sensitive than the most powerful radio telescopes we now have. It will peer deep into the cosmos to pick up signs of the first stars and galaxies to form after the Big Bang; it will trace the effects of the mysterious Dark Energy that is driving the Universe apart at an ever increasing speed; and it will map out the influence of magnetic fields on the development of stars and galaxies. Observations of pulsars will allow the SKA to look for the effects of gravitational waves from merging massive black-holes at the centres of other galaxies. If there are extra-terrestrial intelligences out there in the Milky Way with airport or ionospheric radars, the SKA will detect them.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Giant Radio Telescope May Go to Australia or Africa
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment