******************************************************************
You have navigated to this page through:
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a $3 billion international global science project being put together by a consortium of institutions from 20 different countries.
The SKA is a radio telescope that will help answer fundamental questions in physics and cosmology and provide scientists and the world with unparalleled insights into the formation and evolution of the Universe.
The SKA will either be built in Australia and New Zealand or Southern Africa, with this decision to be made around 2012.
The SKA will require new technology and progress in fundamental engineering in fields such as information and communication technology, high performance computing and production manufacturing techniques. It will comprise a vast array of antennas, arranged in clusters to be spread over 3,000 kilometres or more.
The antennas will be linked electronically to form one enormous telescope. The combination of unprecedented collecting area, versatility and sensitivity will make the SKA the world’s premier imaging and survey telescope over a wide range of radio frequencies, producing the sharpest pictures of the sky of any telescope.
The SKA is a collaboration between institutions in 20 countries, led by an international science and engineering committee and a jointly funded SKA Project Office. The cost of the telescope will be shared among the participating countries, with scientists from around the world working closely with industry partners to develop the technologies to design and build the instrument.
In December 2005 four countries (Australia, Argentina, China and South Africa) submitted proposals to the International SKA Steering Committee (ISSC) to host the SKA. On September 28, 2006 it was announced that Australia and Southern Africa had been short-listed as sites to host the SKA – the final decision is expected in 2012.
The Australian candidate site is located in the Mid West of Western Australia, within the Shire of Murchison. This region is one of the few places in the world today that is suitable in terms of its radio-quietness and its radio-astronomy observational qualities.
***************************EXCERPT****************************************
One exaflop is a thousand petaflops.