haven’t had an update for a while

https://www.skatelescope.org/latestnews/

JudgeMental said:

haven’t had an update for a while

https://www.skatelescope.org/latestnews/

Even though nothing much has been done with the SKA for a while, there are literally dozens of new technical papers out there that predict what the SKA may be able to see. I really don’t like this sort of speculation in proper technical journals, certainly not this many. But it is justified in that many have come from a conference, the conference “Proceedings of ‘Advancing Astrophysics with the SKA (AASKA14)”

Papers about this SKA speculation, even when limited to the single MONTH of Jan 2015, include:

Understanding the Neutron Star Population with the SKA
Probing the neutron star interior and the Equation of State of cold dense matter with the SKA
A Cosmic Census of Radio Pulsars with the SKA
Testing Gravity with Pulsars in the SKA Era
Pulsars in Globular Clusters with the SKA
Understanding pulsar magnetospheres with the SKA
Gravitational wave astronomy with the SKA
Observing Radio Pulsars in the Galactic Centre with the Square Kilometre Array
Filaments of the radio cosmic web: opportunities and challenges for SKA
Unravelling the origin of large-scale magnetic fields in galaxy clusters and beyond through Faraday Rotation Measures with the SKA
Pulsar Wind Nebulae in the SKA era
Structure, dynamical impact and origin of magnetic fields in nearby galaxies in the SKA era
Cluster magnetic fields through the study of polarized radio halos in the SKA era
Stacking for Cosmic Magnetism with SKA Surveys
Giant radio galaxies as probes of the ambient WHIM in the era of the SKA
Magnetic Field Tomography in Nearby Galaxies with the Square Kilometre Array
Statistical methods for the analysis of rotation measure grids in large scale structures in the SKA era
Measuring magnetism in the Milky Way with the Square Kilometre Array
Studies of Relativistic Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei with SKA
Kinematics and Dynamics of kiloparsec-scale Jets in Radio Galaxies with SKA

Feel free to look up any or all of the above technical papers on potential uses of the SKA. They’re all on the web, the ones I’ve listed are all inj ArXiV. I read two before realising that they weren’t worth reading.

For example:

“The SKA will be a discovery machine. Apart from delivering transformational science based
on the expected huge increase in pulsar timing precision, the SKA’s high sensitivity, wide field of
view (FoV), and frequency coverage will allow us to explore the variable radio sky in an unprecedented
way. This will lead to the discovery of previously unknown types of sources and enable us
to probe a wide range of explosive and dynamic events. Eventually, it will lead to a full census
of detectable radio pulsars in the Milky Way and beyond. Among the new sources will be fast,
spin-stable millisecond pulsars (MSPs) whose period distribution reflects the equation of state of
nuclear matter and some of which will serve as detectors of nano-Hz gravitational waves (GWs).
Relativistic binary pulsars, particularly those with orbital periods of a few hours or less, will allow
strong-field tests of General Relativity and other theories of gravity. The discovered pulsars will
also be superb probes for an enhanced understanding of the Milky Way, its structure and its constituents,
including magnetic fields, the free electron distribution etc”

In terms of construction.

“Construction of the SKA is scheduled to begin in 2018 for initial observations by 2020, but the construction budget is not secured at this stage. The SKA will be built in two phases, with Phase 1 (2018-2023) representing about 10% of the capability of the whole telescope. Phase 1 of the SKA was cost-capped at 650 million”

In terms of design, see SKA1 SYSTEM BASELINE DESIGN from 2013. The following is an overly-compressed summary from that document. If I read the following correctly, two of the three parts of the first construction phase of the SKA will be in Australia, with the third in South Africa.

Phase 1 of the SKA (SKA1) includes SKA1-low, SKA1-mid, and SKA1-survey. Low and mid refer to low-frequency and mid-frequency radio waves.

SKA1-low will primarily address observations of the highly redshifted 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen. It will also be well suited for conducting low radio frequency observations of pulsars, magnetized plasmas both in the Galaxy and intergalactic space. The telescope receptors will consist of an array of 250,000 log-periodic dual-polarised antenna elements. Most of the elements will be arranged in a very compact configuration with a diameter of 1 km, the rest of the elements will be configured in three equally spaced spiral arms out to 45 km. The antenna array will operate from 50 MHz to 350 MHz. The elements will be grouped into 866 35m diameter stations, with field-of-view of 20 deg^2 per beam. Data processing will be in Perth.

SKA1-mid will primarily address observations of radio pulsars. The array will be a mixed array of 64 13.5-m diameter dishes from the MeerKAT array and 190 15m SKA1 dishes. The antennas will be arranged in a moderately compact core with a diameter of 1 km, a further 2-dimensional array of randomly placed dishes out to 3 km radius, and three spiral arms, to a radius of 100 km. SKA1-mid will cover the continuous frequency range from 350 MHz to at least 3050 MHz, with higher frequency bands up to at least 14.5 GHz. The SKA1 dishes will be capable of operations up to at least 20 GHz, but not all of this will not be available during SKA1. Data processing will be in Cape Town.

SKA1-survey will primarily conduct surveys of large fractions of the sky. Primary surveys are likely to include the 21-cm hydrogen line from the Galaxy to moderate redshifts. The array will be a mixed array of 36 12-m diameter dishes from the ASKAP array and 60 15-m SKA1 dishes. The SKA1 antennas will be arranged in a core with a diameter of 2 km, to add density to the existing ASKAP array in the core. Three spiral arms will extend to a radius of 25 km from the centre. The SKA1 dishes will be offset-Gregorian optics design, equipped with Phased Array Feeds (PAFs), similar or identical to those planned for the ASKAP antennas. The dishes will be capable of operations up to at least 20 GHz. SKA1-survey will cover the continuous frequency range from 650 MHz to 1670 MHz in a single dualpolarised PAF in a 500 MHz wide instantaneous bandwidth. The PAFs provide a constant Field of View of 18 deg^2 in 36 beams at the highest frequency. The SKA1-survey array will be built within the boundaries of Boolardy station, and operated concurrently with the SKA1-low telescope on the same property.

This table from the above link is interesting, if a bit technical, it directly compares the three components of SKA phase 1 (Low, mid and survey) with the Australian SKA pathfinder (ASKAP), the South African SKA pathfinder (MeerKAT) and other radio telescope arrays around the world. eMERLIN is in the UK. Aricebo is in Puerto Rico. I don’t know what the “MB” of “Parkes MB” stands for, perhaps medium baseline.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-08/ska-low-telescope-australian-outback-aliens-universe/104443548

Link