DECRYPTION – Thousands of antennas will be installed in Australia and South Africa, for an observatory that will revolutionize radio astronomy.
It was not an easy task, but the moment has finally arrived: the construction of the pharaonic radioastronomical observatory project SKA (Square Kilometer Array) is about to begin. The official kick-off of the construction site was given this week in the two countries which will host the main installations, Australia and South Africa. “It is very emotional to see a project started more than thirty years ago come to fruition like this”underlines the French astrophysicist Catherine Cesarsky, member of the Academy of Sciences and president of the board of directors of the SKA Observatory (SKAO), the intergovernmental organization set up to build and operate the instruments.
The scientific objectives are considerable: to follow the evolution of the universe from the dark ages until today; detect gravitational waves emitted in supermassive black hole mergers; understand the origin and influence of magnetism on…
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