Square Kilometre Array (SKA) announcement this afternoon – holding thumbs for SA

From Engineering News with more found here

South Africa, which is up against Australia to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), could hear on Friday whether it has been selected as the site for the world’s largest radio telescope array.

In anticipation of an announcement, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the local SKA project office have scheduled a media briefing for Friday afternoon.

The briefing will follow a meeting of the SKA five-country committee, comprising Canada, China, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK, that will be held in the Netherlands. The DST said an announcement on the preferred site for hosting the SKA might be made at this meeting.

A decision on the location of the core site for the giant instrument was initially scheduled for April, but was delayed to give the SKA Organisation more time to investigate how investments made by Australia and South Africa, could be “maximised”.

Pic: Dr Nadeem Oozeer

Now this is not technically energy related, but this is too exciting for me.  I went to visit SALT last year in Southerland, and it was magic.  Saturn was out showing off her rings and the milky way and all her jewellery boxes were sparkling.  Having this array in SA would be great for helping to keep our Karoo sky unblemished by development and light pollution.  Holding thumbs for this afternoon’s announcement.

Pic: http://www.ska.ac.za/bid/advantage.php

More info on the project can be found here: http://www.ska.ac.za