Square Kilometre Array Observatory

Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO)

#GS-03 Science and Technology

For Prelims

Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO):

  • SKAO is a new intergovernmental organisation dedicated to radio astronomy and is headquartered in the UK.
  • At the moment, organisations from ten countries are a part of the SKAO.
  • These include Australia, Canada, China, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK.
  • India is represented by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)- National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA).
  • SKAO is proposed to be world’s largest radio telescope.
  • It is being built in Australia and South Africa since the view of the Milky Way Galaxy is the best and radio interference at its least there.
  • It was started in 1990s, and further developed and designed by late-2010s. after completion, it will have a total collecting area of approximately one square kilometre.
  • It will require very high-performance central computing engines as well as long-haul links.

What are Radio Telescopes:

  • A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky.
  • Unlike optical telescopes, radio telescopes can be used in the daytime as well as at night.
  • Radio telescopes are typically large parabolic (“dish”) antennas similar to those employed in tracking and communicating with satellites and space probes.
  • They may be used singly or linked together electronically in an array.
  • Radio waves from space were first detected by engineer Karl Guthe Jansky in 1932 at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey.
  • The first purpose-built radio telescope was a 9-meter parabolic dish constructed by radio amateur Grote Reber in his back yard in Wheaton, Illinois in 1937.

Source “Australia begins work on its radio telescope to solve space mysteries