Members of Square Kilometre Array (SKA), announced that the headquarters of the world’s biggest radio telescope will be located at University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank location in England. UK won a bid from Italy. According to the SKA Organisation, negotiations with Britain should start. SKA is an international project to create the most powerful radio telescope on the planet. The final area of the telescope’s collecting surface will exceed one square kilometer (one million square metres). The eleven members of the SKA Organisation are the United Kingdom (the Netherlands), Sweden, South Africa and New Zealand. Artist’s impression of Jodrell Bank, the headquarters for SKA. Image: University of Manchester. The headquarters of SKA’s multinational project, Jodrell Bank is located in the Jodrell Bank Centre of Astrophysics. These premises will be expanded to help the project transition into construction. The Director General of SKA Organisation Professor Philip Diamond said that it was a great honor to find a permanent place for SKA Headquarters. SKA is making an important decision about the site of its headquarters. This will allow for international negotiations to create an intergovernmental organization and begin construction in 2018.” UK. Last year, members were invited to submit bids. Two bids, one from the UK and one from Italy, were presented to SKA Organisation. They were both “judged excellent and both appropriate for the project’s needs.” SKA Organisation said that the UK plan was supported by Cheshire East Council and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK government). It aims to create and construct a campus to support one of the greatest science projects of our century. It will accommodate the SKA’s requirements. If necessary, there will be additional space. Western Australia will soon have up to one million low frequency antennas. Image: skatelescope.org. Professor Diamond stated that Italy has been an important partner in the SKA project since its early stages. “I’m confident that they will keep a high degree of engagement and I look forwards to working with them and all the other partners as we move to the next phase. The SKA Project will use thousands of dishes and up to 1,000,000 antennas. This will allow scientists to observe the sky with unprecedented detail and at a much higher speed than any current system. There will eventually be thousands of 15m dish at mid-to high frequency in South Africa. Skelescope.org image. The SKA Organisation stated that the unique structure of the SKA will allow it to observe vast areas at once, surpassing the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. This feat is unprecedented for any survey telescope with such sensitivity. The SKA, along with a variety of large telescopes, infrared and optical, will be launched into space in the next decades. This will allow scientists to enhance, complement, and lead scientific discovery. It will ensure that cutting-edge science continues to be conducted at the site in the future. This will also inspire thousands of schoolchildren who come here each year. It’s a tremendous honour to have been chosen as headquarters for the largest telescope ever constructed.” Dr Keith Grainge (Jodrell Bank Associate Director for SKA) also said: “We are thrilled that the SKA Organisation chose to locate its permanent headquarters at Jodrell Bank. Everyone here looks forward to working together with SKA colleagues, international partners and building telescopes.
