[img]http://images.ninemsn.com.au/resizer.aspx?url=http://news.ninemsn.com.au/img/2011/national/0206_telescope_sp.jpg&width=310[/img]
The SKA will have more than 3000 dishes to collect data.
[quote]Extra-terrestrial life could be discovered first from Australia, if the country wins its bid to house the largest and most advanced radio telescope ever constructed.
Australia and New Zealand together represent one of two candidates shortlisted to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a telescope so powerful it will enable scientists to look back in time, almost to the beginning of the universe.
SKA director Brian Boyle, from CSIRO's Astronomy and Space Science division, said the telescope would "reveal knowledge about the universe that we've scarcely even begun to dream about".
Scientists hope the SKA will help them unlock some of the universe's key mysteries. It will be used to search for intelligent life on other planets, explore the evolution of the galaxies, stars and black holes, and investigate the nature of the "dark energy" that fills much of the universe.
"Perhaps the greatest scientific revolution might occur with this telescope, and that's the discovery of intelligence beyond our planet," Dr Boyle told ninemsn.
"The SKA will increase the search volume by a factor of one million over what we've previously done, and it will encompass planets around stellar systems that could well be earth-like. It could even detect things like airport radars from those planets."
As the telescope would be 50 times larger than its existing rival, and able to survey the sky 10,000 times faster, it will also enable astronomers to look much further back in time.
"With this we can actually see right back to the first 300,000 years after the Big Bang," Dr Boyle said.
If Australia is successful in its bid against rival candidate South Africa, the SKA's 3000 12m-wide dishes will stretch 5500km from a core site in Western Australia, in the remote Murchison region in the state's north-west, across the country and into New Zealand.
Author and science commentator Karl Kruszelnicki told ninemsn the super-telescope could also improve the lives of those who may not be interested in science and space discovery.
Astronomy research already has led to the discovery of useful everyday technologies, including wi-fi, cancer scanners and GPS devices, he said.
Research conducted with SKA could have even greater potential to uncover new technologies.
"Have you used wi-fi? Wi-fi technology was accidentally invented by people looking for black holes," Dr Kruszelnicki said.
"Or have you known a friend who has had a body part scanned for … cancer? When (scientists) use the Hubble telescope to try to find a tiny grey dot on a grey background, it's hard, so [the same technology can work] when you're looking for little tiny lumps in the body.
"The spin-offs from this will be amazing."
The 20 countries involved in the $2.5 billion SKA project will decide on its location in February 2012. Construction is expected to begin in 2015 and be completed by the mid-2020s.
Ninemsn's interview with Dr Boyle and Dr Kruszelnicki was filmed at Summit Restaurant & Bar, Level 47, Australia Square, Sydney.[/quote]
Source: [url]http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8256522/extra-terrestrial-life-could-first-be-seen-from-australia[/url]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ivYd2NDRvc[/media]
[editline]2nd June 2011[/editline]
inb4 Australia bans alien life. :saddowns:
So yeah about that Caron Tax...
Must have it.
Fuck off, South Africa.
I could've sworn I posted this a while back
completed in mid 2020s ? Aww.
[QUOTE=BigBoom;30195960]So yeah about that Caron Tax...[/QUOTE]
Carbon*
I saw government trucks pulling down a bunch of dishes in the next suburb over, maybe it's related.
[QUOTE=BigBoom;30195960]So yeah about that Caron Tax...[/QUOTE]
I don't think radio telescopes emit much "caron", so they wouldn't be hit hard.
How about you take all those dishes, use them for satellite Internet and maybe finally get some fucking connectivity up in there?
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