World’s largest radio telescope planned for Australia and South Africa

The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is a large radio telescope project with construction starting in 2021 in Australia and South Africa. It will be built in two phases, SKA1 and SKA2. SKA1 includes SKA1-Low in Australia with 130,000 antennas and SKA1-Mid in South Africa with 130 dish antennas. SKA1-Low operates between 50-350 MHz, while SKA1-Mid operates between 350 MHz and 15 GHz. The telescope will be highly efficient in mapping the sky and detecting faint cosmic radio signals over a 1 square kilometer area.

Where will the construction of the Square Kilometer Array begin?

• China and India

• United States and Canada

• Brazil and Argentina

• Australia and South Africa

What are the two instruments included in SKA1?

• SKA1-High and SKA1-Low

• SKA1-Low and SKA1-Mid

• SKA1-Low and SKA1-Base

• SKA1-Mid and SKA1-High

How many antennas will SKA1-Low consist of?

• 130,000 antennas

• 13,000 antennas

• 1,300 antennas

• 130 antennas

What is the frequency range for SKA1-Mid?

• 1 to 10 gigahertz

• 15 to 50 gigahertz

• 350 megahertz to 15 gigahertz

• 50 to 350 megahertz

What is the area that the SKA telescope will cover?

• 1000 square kilometers

• 1 square kilometer

• 10 square kilometers

• 100 square kilometers