Square eyes

UK universities are leading the design study for what will become the world’s biggest telescope. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which received substantial EU funding last week, will be an international radio telescope consisting of at least 10,000 antenna stations.

Occupying a vast 3,000km 2 of land — possibly in Africa — the surface area of the SKA’s combined antennae adds up to the ground area from which it takes its name.

Dr Paul Alexander, from Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory, is leading the UK side of the design study alongside colleagues at Oxford and Manchester universities. He said that SKA will provide astronomers with an unprecedented amount of information including details of exactly when physical structures started to emerge in the universe: the so-called ‘epoch of reionisation’.

However, before the telescope can be built a number of engineering challenges need to be overcome.

‘The UK is taking a leading part in the whole project,’ said Alexander. ‘We are looking at SKA as being both a huge engineering and IT problem.’