The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) Council recently held its meeting. During the meeting, the council has approved the setting up of the world’s largest radio telescope.
About SKAO
- The Square Kilometre Array Observatory is a new intergovernmental organisation.
- It is dedicated to the radio astronomy.
- It is headquartered in the United Kingdom.
- Currently, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory comprises of the organisations from the ten countries namely, Canada, China, Australia, India, New Zealand, Italy, Sweden, South Africa, United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
About Radio telescopes
- The Radio Telescopes can be used to detect the invisible gas and it has the potential to reveal areas of space that might have covered by the cosmic dust.
- It is different than the conventional optical telescopes in this regard.
- The Square Kilometre Array is the largest radio telescope across the world.
- The telescope will be set up in Africa and Australia.
- The setting up of the telescope will take a decade to complete.
- the operation, maintenance and construction of the telescope will be overseen by SKAO.
Background
Astronomers uses the radio telescopes ever since the discovery of the radio signals in the 1930s. They used it to detect the radio waves emitting from different objects in the universe. However, the field of radio astronomy got evolved after the World War II.
Significance of the telescope
The telescope will help the astronomers to know details regarding how the universe began to grow, how & when stars were born. It would also help in knowing the life-cycle of a galaxy. It will make exploring whether there is any technologically-active civilizations anywhere else in the galaxy easier for the astronomers. It would also help in understanding from where the gravitational waves come. Further, the As NASA highlighted that this telescope will boost the scientific goals by measuring the neutral hydrogen in the cosmic time. It would also help in accurately timing the signals from pulsars from the Milky Way. Lastly, it would help to detect many galaxies.