The Square Kilometer Array  (SKA) project

is an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope, with a square kilometre (one million square metres) of collecting area. The scale of the SKA represents a huge leap forward in both engineering and research & development towards building and delivering a unique instrument, with the detailed design and preparation now well under way. As one of the largest scientific endeavours in history, the SKA will bring together a wealth of the world’s finest scientists, engineers and policy makers to bring the project to fruition.

 Unprecedented Scale

The SKA will use hundreds of thousands of radio telescopes, in three unique configurations, which 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. The SKA telescopes will be co-located in Africa and in Australia. South Africa’s Karoo desert will cover the core of the high and mid frequencies of the radio spectrum which will have telescopes spread all over the continent, with Australia’s Murchison region covering the low frequency range and hosting the survey instrument.

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