Jodrell Bank chosen as global headquarters of major new radio telescope
4th October 2007
Press Release
The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics is to host the global headquarters of the world's next generation radio telescope, the 1.5bn Euro Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
The SKA, which involves astronomers and engineers in 17 countries, will be made up of thousands of antennas spread over thousands of kilometres. It will enable astronomers to explore dark energy, to see the first stars and galaxies, to test Einstein's theories and to study the origin of stars, planets and life.
Professor Phil Diamond, Director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, said: "The Square Kilometre Array looks set to become one of the great scientific projects of the 21st century and we are very proud that its global headquarters will be here in Manchester."
"This powerful new telescope will greatly extend our knowledge of the universe", explained Professor Richard Schilizzi, International SKA Director. "Not only will it improve our understanding of objects ranging from black holes to the earliest stars and galaxies, but it is also bound to discover as yet unknown phenomena."
The engineers who will work in the new headquarters will be responsible for leading the design effort on SKA, coordinating the work of many scientists and engineers world-wide. Funding for the headquarters is being provided by the European Community.
A Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to locate the SKA HQ in Manchester will be signed today by Professor Alan Gilbert (President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester) and Professor Brian Boyle (Chair of the International SKA Steering Committee and Director of the Australia Telescope National Facility).
Professor Alan Gilbert pointed out that "The timing of this announcement is particularly appropriate as today also marks the 50th anniversary of the completion of the giant Lovell radio telescope at the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory."
The first act of the Lovell Telescope was to track the rocket that carried Sputnik into space on Oct 4th 1957 and it has since played a leading role in radio astronomy. The decision to place the headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array in Manchester ensures that Jodrell Bank will remain at the forefront of astronomical discovery well into the future.
The UK SKA consortium also includes the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Cardiff, Glasgow and Leeds.
Images and animations
An animation showing a drive to and flyover of the SKA can be found here:
Animation v1 - 640x360 - 14.0Mb, wmv file
Animation v2 hi-res 1280x720 - 95.0Mb, wmv file
An alternative view of the SKA core
Looking down on the SKA from space showing a possible spiral arrangement of the telescope stations.
Notes for editors
1. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be a set of thousands of antennas, not a single giant instrument. These will be spread over 3000 kilometres, but with half of the antennas located in a central region 5 kilometres across. By connecting these antennas to ultra-fast computing systems, the SKA will be able to look in many different directions at the same time, vastly increasing its power and flexibility.
The huge collecting area of the SKA will make it 50 times more sensitive than the current most powerful radio telescopes giving us an entirely new view of the invisible universe:
- It will probe deep into the Dark Ages of the cosmos, before the first stars and galaxies formed following the Big Bang;
- It will trace the effects of the mysterious Dark Energy that is driving the Universe apart at an ever increasing speed;
- It will map out the influence of magnetic fields on the development of stars and galaxies;
- It will use pulsars to look for the effects of gravitational waves from merging massive black-holes at the centres of other galaxies;
- If there are extra-terrestrial intelligences out there in the Milky Way with transmitters similar to our own airport or ionospheric radars, the SKA will detect them.
Stringent limits on man-made radio interference and the stability of ionospheric conditions led to a decision earlier this year to locate the SKA itself in either Western Australia or Southern Africa. A final decision will be made towards the end of the decade following further analysis of the two short-listed sites. Construction is planned to begin in 2012 with the telescope becoming fully operational by 2020.
For more information on the SKA see http://www.skatelescope.org
2. The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA) is the astronomical research centre of the University of Manchester and a world leader in radio astronomy-related research and technology development.
JBCA hosts MERLIN, the UK's national radio astronomy facility, on behalf of the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The MERLIN array of seven radio telescopes (including the iconic 76-metre Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory) stretches 217 km across England from Jodrell to Cambridge. When optical fibre links are completed in 2008, e-MERLIN will be the first of the world's next generation of ultra-sensitive telescopes.
The JBCA research programme ranges from the discovery of planets orbiting other stars to the study of the origin of the Universe in the Big Bang. We were recently awarded the prestigious European Union Descartes Research Prize for our work on pulsars, the super-dense remnants of exploded stars, which provide superb tests of Einstein's theory of gravity.
For more information on Jodrell Bank see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/jodrellbank
Contacts
Prof. Phil Diamond
Director, Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
Mob: 07919 020218
E-mail: philip.diamond@manchester.ac.uk
Prof. Richard Schilizzi
International SKA Director
Tel: +31 651 433471
General enquiries can be directed to:
Dr Tim O'Brien or Prof Ian Morison
Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
Tel: 01477 571321
