After 30 years of planning and negotiations, the foundations of the SKA are now being laid across sprawling sites in Australia and Africa, with its headquarters to be established in the UK.
The gigantic observatory is set to be completed in 2028, when it will begin collecting the radio signals emitted by celestial objects to shed light on some of the most enigmatic problems in astronomy, such as the nature of dark matter and how galaxies form.
Astronomers and local communities have travelled to the remote sites in South Africa’s Northern Cape and Western Australia to celebrate the milestone with officials from the SKA Observatory (SKAO), the intergovernmental organisation in charge of the telescopes.
“We’re basically setting the foundation of this instrument for the next 50 years,” said Lindsay Magnus, the director of the telescope being built in South Africa. “That’s the exciting part: this is a long-term legacy.”
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