The Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescopes will be the world’s largest ever radio telescopes. With 197 dishes located in South Africa and more than 130,000 antennas located in Australia, the SKA telescopes will allow astronomers to study the radio sky in more detail than ever before and help answer some of the most important questions about the Universe.
The UK hosts the global headquarters of the SKA Observatory and scientists and engineers from across the UK are playing an important part in designing both the hardware and software for the SKA telescopes.
In July 2021, construction officially began on the Square Kilometre Array - This moment has been 30 years in the making, so a huge milestone for the largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever built
SKAO - A new observatory to explore the Universe
With over a square kilometre, which equates to one million square metres of collecting area, the large scale of the SKA can prove the huge technological advancements in both engineering and research & development. This will be achieved through collating the world’s best in these fields and the UK-ATC software team are a part of this.
Our Instrument Scientist, Pamela, talks about the amazing science and technology of the SKA, and how the UK ATC is involved in making it happen
SKA will make radio images over the whole sky much faster and in more detail than ever before
To find out more about the UK’s contribution to the Square Kilometer Array, visit SKA UK
By the numbers
Download our infographics to learn more about how SKA compares to other radio telescopes and just how BIG and complex it will be!
Artist's Impressions
Below are some of our favourite artist's impressions of the SKA telescope. Click on the titles in the list to expand the information about the image.
SKA at daytime
Composite image of the SKA combining all elements in South Africa and Australia. This image blends photos of real hardware already on the ground on both sites with artist's impressions of the future SKA antennas. From left: artist's impression of the future SKA dishes blend into the existing precursor MeerKAT telescope dishes in South Africa. From right: artist's impression of the future SKA-Low stations blends into the existing AAVS2.0 prototype station in Western Australia.
Credit: SKAO, ICRAR, SARAO
SKA at Night
Nighttime composite image of the SKA combining all elements in South Africa and Australia. This image blends photos of real hardware already on the ground at both sites with artist's impressions of the future SKA antennas. From left: artist's impression of the future SKA dishes blend into the existing precursor MeerKAT telescope dishes in South Africa. From right: artist's impression of the future SKA-Low stations blends into the existing AAVS2.0 prototype station in Western Australia
Credit: SKAO, ICRAR, SARAO
Acknowledgment: The GLEAM view of the centre of the Milky Way, in radio colour. Credit: Natasha Hurley-Walker (Curtin / ICRAR) and the GLEAM Team.
SKA-Low Close Up
Close-up artist rendition of the SKA-Low aperture array and ASKAP dishes in Australia. These dipole antennas, which will number in their hundreds of thousands, will survey the radio sky in frequencies as low at 50Mhz
Credit: SKA Organisation
SKA-Low - Wide angle artist impression (composite)
Composite image of the SKA-Low telescope in Western Australia. The image blends a real photo (on the left) of the SKA-Low prototype station AAVS2.0 which is already on site, with an artist’s impression of the future SKA-Low stations as they will look when constructed. These dipole antennas, which will number in their hundreds of thousands, will survey the radio sky in frequencies as low at 50Mhz
Credit: SKAO, ICRAR
SKA-Mid - Close Up
Close-up artist's impression of the SKA-Mid dishes and the MeerKAT dishes in South Africa. The 15m wide dish telescopes, will provide the SKA with some of its highest resolution imaging capability, working towards the upper range of radio frequencies which the SKA will cover.
Credit: SKA Organisation
SKA-Mid - Wide Angle
Aerial artist's impression view of the SKA-Mid dishes and the MeerKAT dishes in Africa. The 15m-wide dish telescopes, will provide the SKA with some of its highest resolution imaging capability, working towards the upper range of radio frequencies which the SKA will cover.
Credit: SKA Organisation
SKA-Mid - wide angle artist impression (composite)
Composite image of the SKA-Mid telescope in South Africa. The image blends a real photo (on the right) of the existing MeerKAT radio telescope dishes, with an artist’s impression of the future SKA-Mid dishes as they will look when constructed (left). The 15m wide dish telescopes, will provide the SKA with some of its highest resolution imaging capability, working towards the upper range of radio frequencies which the SKA will cover.
Credit: SKAO, SARAO
