India Joins 9 Other Nations To Create The World's Largest Radio Telescope. 11 Must Know Facts About The SKA Organisation
Dear earthlings of the India, we are proud to let you know that The National Centre for Radio Astrophysics was on Monday appointed the nodal agency to oversee the activities related to building the largest and most sensitive radio telescope — Square Kilometre Array — in India, one of the 10 countries involved in its development.
The department of atomic energy signed the agreement documents on Monday with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Organisation in the presence of its director-general Philip Diamond.
"Several Indian scientists are working on research areas relevant to SKA. They are gearing up for pursuing cutting edge science with the instrument when it is ready," said Swarna Kanti Ghosh, the centre director of NCRA.
Here are some facts that you must know about SKA:
1. 10 member nations
SKA is conceived as the most ambitious radio telescope ever. The project is an international initiative with 11 participating countries, scheduled to start by the year 2018. Currently there are 10 members who have signed on - Australia, Canada, China, India, Italy, Netherlands,New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden and United Kingdom.
2. The telescope is spread across two continents
The SKA is an international effort to build the largest and the most sensitive radio telescope in the world. It will be a collection of thousands of dishes and radio receivers spread across two sites in Africa and Western Australia - the Karoo desert in South Africa and Murchis region in Australia.
3. The results will show up in 2020s
At present, it is in a detailed design stage. Several cutting edge technologies are being explored and developed to realise the SKA project. The first result is expected from SKA in the early 2020s, when the first phase will be nearing completion.
4. What are we looking for?
SKA is expected to address some of the fundamental questions about our Universe. For example, it will look back to a time when the Universe was in its infancy, and is expected to tell us how the first stars and black holes formed and lit up the Universe. In another important project, SKA will use compact astronomical objects like pulsars and black holes to test the limits of Einstein's theory of gravity.
5. Indians will design the brain and nervous system of SKA
Yashwant Gupta, a scientist at NCRA and the principal investigator for the SKA related effort in India, said: "At present, Indian scientists are leading one of the 10 design work packages for SKA, the Telescope Manager, which will be the brain and the nervous system controlling the entire SKA observatory. This work is being carried out in collaboration with other research organisations and industry partners in India, as well as with six other SKA member nations, with NCRA as the lead organisation."
SKA related activities in India received a major boost recently when the SKA Organisation accorded the status of 'SKA Pathfinder' to the Khodad-based Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT, operated by NCRA), recognising the important technical and scientific developments being carried out for upgrading GMRT. It will provide valuable feedback to the teams designing the SKA, as well as excellent opportunities for astronomers to try out science experiments of relevance to their planned quests with the SKA.
_Internet_today>6.The SKA Data > Internet today
The data produced by the telescope in one second can fill up a three tera byte hard disk. SKA will produce more data flow than the total daily traffic on the entire internet today.
7. Will work for 50 years
The expected lifetime of the telescope is 50 years. The software and hardware will be upgraded later.
8. Just 1 square kilometre area
Though spread across two locations the total area of SKA will be roughly one square km.
9. 18 nations and 100 institutions involved in design
More than 350 scientists and engineers representing 18 nations from 100 institutions, universities and industry will work on the design phase.
10. The great computing power
SKA central computer will have the processing power of about 100 million PCs.
11. The optical fibre length
SKA will use optical fibre enough to wrap twice around the Earth.
(With inputs from TNN)