[AstroNet] SKA Organisation Headquarters Opening Ceremony Paves The Way Forward For The World's Largest Radio Telescope - 7 May

Thu May 9 12:58:59 SAST 2013

SKA ORGANISATION PRESS RELEASE - SKA ORGANISATION HEADQUARTERS OPENING
CEREMONY PAVES THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE WORLD'S LARGEST RADIO TELESCOPE - 7
MAY 2013 - JODRELL BANK OBSERVATORY, UK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Press Release and associated images available at:
http://www.skatelescope.org/news/ska-hq-opening-ceremony/

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SKA ORGANISATION HEADQUARTERS OPENING CEREMONY PAVES THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE
WORLD'S LARGEST RADIO TELESCOPE 

Less than a year after the decision to site the revolutionary Square
Kilometre Array (SKA) in both Southern Africa and Australia, the SKA
Organisation has opened its new international headquarters.

In front of an invited audience of local and global dignitaries, scientists
and engineers, the UK Minister for Universities and Science the Rt. Hon.
David Willetts MP recently opened the building which will be home to the
team managing the construction, design and scientific output of this
groundbreaking telescope.

The SKA Organisation headquarters, located near to, and with views of the
iconic Lovell Telescope at the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank
Observatory in the UK, will be the central control hub for a global team
who, over the next decade, will be building the SKA – the largest radio
telescope ever seen on Earth.

"The Square Kilometre Array is set to be one of the world’s most exciting
international science projects, giving us new and unparalleled insights into
the universe”, said the UK Minister for Universities and Science the Rt.
Hon. David Willetts MP. “The fact that the UK has been chosen to host the
project office is recognition of our leading expertise in science,
engineering and design. It will give us a leading role in the development
and operation of this groundbreaking telescope."

“The opening of the SKA headquarters at Jodrell Bank means that the world's
largest radio telescope now has a home in the UK –  a major milestone for
this truly inspirational international science project to explore the origin
and evolution of the Universe”, said John Womersley, CEO of the Science and
Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and Chairman of the SKA Organisation.

The elegant and modern £3.34 million building, funded by the University of
Manchester, is a state of the art facility which will eventually be home to
upwards of 60 members of staff, including visiting scientists and engineers.

"The new Office of the SKA Organisation at the University of Manchester’s
Jodrell Bank is an ideal place for scientists and engineers to work together
to plan the world's largest radio telescope”, said Professor Stephen Watts,
Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Manchester.
“It sits alongside world-leading radio astronomy facilities in the Lovell
Telescope and e-MERLIN, itself a Pathfinder to the SKA. Together with the
hugely successful Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, these offer a real
opportunity to inspire people of all ages with this ambitious project to
answer truly fundamental questions about the nature of the universe."

Designed by architects Fielden Clegg Bradley and built by John Turner
Construction Group, the building uses numerous environmentally friendly
engineering solutions by Capita Symonds to ensure a minimal environmental
impact. Natural lighting is provided by the huge glass facade, and the
architectural teams have made important efforts to ensure that the
ventilation, lighting and heating systems are as energy efficient as
possible. Built in just over 6 months, the SKA Organisation office has been
in use since November 2012, when the team moved from the Alan Turing
Building at the University of Manchester.

“This wonderful new office, which offers our team stunning views of the
Jodrell Bank site, including the famous Lovell Telescope, will we hope
inspire everyone who works here, and will provide our guests and visiting
scientists a truly unique scientific facility to conduct their research and
work”, said SKA Director General Philip Diamond. “The limited environmental
impact and energy efficiency goals we set with the construction of the
project office, are also in line with our long term aims for the entire SKA
project.”

The Square Kilometre Array is a radio telescope which will be built in the
remote and radio quiet deserts of Australia and Southern Africa. These
seemingly harsh locations have been carefully chosen for their remoteness
from any possible man made radio interference. The SKA will comprise
thousands of radio telescopes, which will be located in these two desert
locations, and will also have dishes and antennas spread over thousands of
kilometres to create a single giant telescope.

When the faint radio waves, coming from the very edges of our Universe reach
the array of radio telescopes, the signals are then combined, using powerful
supercomputers which will create a virtual telescope with a total collecting
area of one square kilometre. That’s one million square metres, or the
equivalent of 140 football fields. This will make the SKA more than 50 times
more sensitive than any existing radio telescope on Earth, surpassing even
the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The SKA telescope will be attempting to unravel the most profound mysteries
of humanity and will revolutionise our understanding of the Universe. It
will investigate how the first stars and galaxies formed after the big bang,
how dark energy is accelerating the expansion of the Universe, the role of
magnetism in the cosmos, the nature of gravity, and will even search for
life beyond Earth. And scientists believe that the SKA’s unparalleled
sensitivity and ability to image such huge portions of the sky at up to
10,000 times to the speed of current survey telescopes will produce detailed
information and provide answers to many more fundamental questions about
mysteries which are baffling scientists today.

The project is led by the SKA Organisation, a not-for-profit company, which
includes multiple countries around the world including Australia, Canada,
China, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden and
the UK. With India also as an associate member, the SKA Organisation is
expected to embrace more countries over the coming years. With such a
formidable scale, international collaboration is fundamental to this
gigantic 21st Century project.

Construction of the SKA is due to begin in 2016 using a phased development
approach. This means that scientific output will come even before the
project completes and is fully operational in 2024, by which time several
thousand combined radio telescopes will be collecting and processing data
equivalent to 100 times today’s global internet traffic.

However, even before the SKA comes online, a series of demonstrator
telescopes and systems known as pathfinders and precursors, are already
operational or under development across the world, paving the way for the
kinds of technology which the SKA will need to pioneer to make the huge data
available to scientists. These pathfinder and precursor telescopes, in place
in Australia, South Africa, across Europe and in America are providing the
SKA scientists with vital information relating to the science and technology
that will be created and required to make the SKA work at its optimal
performance capability.

With so much being learnt from the pathfinders and precursor telescopes, the
SKA project is now entering a hugely exciting phase. Research organisations
around the world along with leading industrial partners have recently being
invited to collaborate and submit proposals on the R&D and design of the
telescopes and instrumentation which will become the heart of this epic
endeavour. This first round of proposals are expected to be evaluated and
assessed at the new SKA offices in July of this year.

“We are now firmly on the journey to create one of the most iconic
scientific instruments of the 21st Century!”, said Phil Diamond.

Notes for editors:

- Key dates in the History of the SKA

>From 2008 to 2011 inclusive the SKA Project Development Office (SPDO) and
staff were based at the University of Manchester on the main campus. The
SPDO Director was Prof. Richard Schilizzi.

2 April 2011: UK Consortium including Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and
Manchester, and the Science and Technology Facilities Research Council
(STFC) win bid to house the SKA HQ at the University of Manchester’s Jodrell
Bank Observatory.

14 December 2011: SKA Organisation is formed as a not-for-profit company
limited by guarantee.

18 January 2012: First face-to-face meeting of the SKA Organisation Board.

18 April 2012: Ground Breaking Ceremony at JBO for the SKA HQ Building.

25 May 2012: Dual site (Australia and South Africa) agreement for the SKA
Telescope made by the SKA Organisation.

5 September 2012: Prof. Philip Diamond appointed Director-General of SKA
Organisation.

5 November 2012: SKA Organisation moves into the SKA HQ Building at JBO

- About the SKA

The Square Kilometre Array will be the world’s largest and most sensitive
radio telescope. The total collecting area will be approximately one square
kilometre giving 50 times the sensitivity, and 10 000 times the survey
speed, of the best current-day telescopes. The SKA will be built in Southern
Africa and in Australia. Thousands of receptors will extend to distances of
3 000 km from the central regions. The SKA will address fundamental
unanswered questions about our Universe including how the first stars and
galaxies formed after the big bang, how dark energy is accelerating the
expansion of the Universe, the role of magnetism in the cosmos, the nature
of gravity, and the search for life beyond Earth. Construction of phase one
of the SKA is scheduled to start in 2016. The SKA Organisation, with its
headquarters at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Manchester, UK, was
established in December 2011 as a not-for-profit company in order to
formalise relationships between the international partners and centralise
the leadership of the project.

Members of the SKA Organisation as of March 2013:

•    Australia: Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research

•    Canada: National Research Council

•    China: Ministry of Science and Technology

•    Germany: Federal Ministry of Education and Research

•    Italy: National Institute for Astrophysics

•    Netherlands: Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research

•    New Zealand: Ministry of Economic Development

•    Republic of South Africa: National Research Foundation

•    Sweden: Onsala Space Observatory

•    United Kingdom: Science and Technology Facilities Council

Associate member:

•    India: National Centre for Radio Astrophysics

SKA website: www.skatelescope.org <http://www.skatelescope.org/> 

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