Astroparticle Colloquia

The Square Kilometre Array Observatory: uncovering the origins of Life and the Universe

Name: The Square Kilometre Array Observatory: uncovering the origins of Life and the Universe
Start: 2022-02-02T14:30:00+01:00
End: 2022-02-02T15:30:00+01:00
Location: No location set

by Prof. Philip Diamond (University of Manchester)

Wednesday 2 Feb 2022, 14:30 → 15:30 Europe/Rome

Description

A global partnership of nations has joined together to build and operate the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), a radio astronomy observatory for the 21st Century. SKAO will consist of two enormous radio telescopes, one in South Africa and one in Australia. After seven years of detailed design, construction has finally begun with the observatory expected to be operational in ~2028. The observatory has been designed to deliver a huge range of science from the origins of life, exploring gravitational physics, probing cosmic magnetism to uncovering the dark ages of the early Universe, and much more. I shall provide a guided tour of the key aspects of the science enabled by SKAO, describe the observatory itself and the infrastructure required to deliver data to the scientists and finally will provide an update on the current status of construction.