There are many telescopes in the world. But construction of the largest recent radio telescope for mapping space has begun in Australia. The Square Kilometer Array Telescope (SKA) will be the world's largest telescope when completed.
The telescope, which started to be built in Western Australia, is a joint project of 16 countries. The largest piece of the $3 billion project will be this radio telescope. It will include more than 130000 antennas along the 74-kilometer line.
Antony Schinkel, the construction manager of SKA, emphasized that there are other radio telescopes in the world for this telescope, but there is no telescope of this scale and even comparison cannot be made. The idea of building this telescope to understand the unknowns of the universe emerged in the early 90s. Such a large telescope was needed to understand the early stages of the universe and to shed light on the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang.
Thanks to this telescope, it is expected to provide information about the formation of the first stars of the universe belonging to the reionization period. Another prospect with the telescope will be to help study dark energy and its effects on cosmic expansion.
Sarah Pearce, the director of the telescope, explained that this project has been planned for 30 years. The construction of the antennas of the telescope will continue until 2028. However, after the construction is completed, of course, scientific results will not be obtained immediately. It is expected that the first scientific results will come after 4 or 5 years after the construction is completed. Pearce previously reported that this project will work in parallel with the project involving 197 bowls in South Africa. With the merger of these two facilities, it is expected that one of the largest science facilities in the world will be formed.
