Although Germany has now withdrawn officially from the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Organisation, the international body tasked with the pre-construction phase of the world’s largest radio telescope, the organisation was “absolutely” confident that new members would join.
The telescope will compromise thousands of radio antennae in Africa and Australia, with its core in South Africa’s Northern Cape. It will analyse the faint radio signals from space to answer some of humanity’s most enigmatic questions, such as do gravitational waves exist, what is dark matter and is there other life in the universe? It will be the largest science experiment on Earth and it needs members to fund the €2-billion price tag.
Newly elected board chairperson Giovanni Bignami, president of Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics, said he was “absolutely” sure that new member countries would join the 10-member strong organisation.
For more, find the article — originally published in Mail & Guardian — here.