[feb] Square Kilometre Array

Question 1

Context?

Answer 1

Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) Council held its maiden meeting and approved the establishment of the world’s largest radio telescope.

Question 2

About SKAO?

Answer 2

• 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)

Question 3

What are radio telescopes?

Answer 3

• 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.

Question 4

About SKA Telescope?

Answer 4

• 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.