The SKA will be two vast arrays of radio telescopes: one in Africa and one in Australia. This artist’s impression shows the central core of the 2500-dish African array, to be constructed in the Karoo region of South Africa.

PHOTO BY: SKA ORGANIZATION

Artist’s impression of the SKA Headquarters, to be completed in 2017. The SKA Campus is in the foreground, with the iconic Lovell Radio Telescope behind it.

PHOTO BY: SKA ORGANIZATION

Canadian delegates at the first SKA Key Science Workshop, held in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 2015. From left: Prof Bryan Gaensler (University of Toronto), Dr Doug Johnstone (National Research Council), Prof Jeroen Stil (University of Calgary), Dr Tim Robishaw (National Research Council), Dr Michael Rupen (National Research Council), Prof Greg Sivakoff (University of Alberta), Prof Kristine Spekkens (Royal Military College).

PHOTO BY: SKA ORGANIZATION

This artist’s impression collects the various distributed aspects of the SKA into a single image. The two main antenna components are “SKA-Mid” dishes to be located in South Africa and in other African partner countries (front left), and the “SKA-Low” antennas to be built in the outback of Western Australia (bottom right). Also shown are the precursor MeerKAT dishes in South Africa (background left), and the precursor ASKAP dishes in Western Australia (background right).

PHOTO BY: SKA ORGANIZATION

Welcome to SKA canada

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project is an international collaboration to build the world’s largest radio telescope. The SKA aims to conduct groundbreaking science that will transform our understanding of the Universe and of the laws of fundamental physics. The SKA will monitor the sky in unprecedented detail and map it hundreds of times faster than any current facility.

The SKA will not be a single telescope but a collection of telescopes called an array, working together over long distances – tens to hundreds of kilometres and eventually thousands of kilometres. The SKA’s construction has been divided into two phases: Phase 1 in Australia for SKA1-Low and South Africa for SKA1-Mid; and Phase 2 for SKA2 expanding further in Australia and South Africa as well as into other African countries. Scientific operations are scheduled to begin in the early 2020s.

Supported by 20 countries around the world, the SKA is being designed by more than 500 of the world’s finest scientists and engineers drawn from more than 100 companies and research institutions. Canada has been involved in the SKA project since its earliest stages, and continues to play a leading role in the advanced design, technology and research activities needed to create this exciting facility.