SCIENTIFIC DOMAINS

Radio astronomy

Key words: Astronomy telescopes

PROSPECTIVES

The SKA will partly be used to answer questions which have not yet been asked. Radio astronomers will use the SKA to understand how stars and galaxies are formed, and how they evolved over time, and perhaps to detect life elsewhere in the Universe. SKA will be used to obtain a better understanding of dark energy and dark matter.

Deploying thousands of radio telescopes, in three unique configurations, it will enable astronomers to monitor the sky in unprecedented detail and survey the entire sky thousands of times faster than any system currently in existence.

PARTNERSHIP

Many different countries are working together to build – and pay for – the SKA. 10 member countries are the cornerstone of the SKA and 100 organisations from 20 countries have participated in the design and development of the SKA. 

PROSPECTIVE SERVICES

The South Africa has already built seven dishes (KAT-7), as an engineering prototype for the MeerKAT and this seven-dish array has already produced its first scientific images. Radio astronomers are using the instrument to do research and have started publishing research articles based on data from KAT-7. Although it was intended as an engineering test bed, it has worked so well that it is in demand among scientists for their observations and is producing good science.