How Big Data Punks Are Changing The World With SKA Radio Telescope

The first is to study gravitational waves, which were first discovered very recently.

“What we were really observing there was the merger of two black holes, so it was a very exciting discovery,” said Nikolic. “It was an amazing discovery and, now we know gravitational waves exist, it is a new window in the universe and the SKA will play a major role in investigating them.”

The second objective is to analyse the epoch of re-ionisation. This refers to the slice of the universe’s history during which the predominantly neutral intergalactic medium was ionised by the emergence of the first luminous sources. These sources could have been stars, galaxies, quasars, or a combination of the three.

Nikolic says: “We have no way of seeing what the beginning of universe looked like. In the Dark Ages, most of universe was neutral – there was hardly anything there. But we can look at imprints of first stars on neutral stars around them.

“The most exciting things, though, will be the things we discover by accident – the things that we haven’t thought of.”

Accidental discoveries?

With a project like this, computing obviously plays a major role. The scale of the SKA represents a huge leap forward in both engineering and research & development towards building and delivering a unique instrument, with the detailed design and preparation now well under way. As one of the largest scientific endeavours in history, the SKA will bring together a wealth of the world’s finest scientists, engineers and policy makers to bring the project to fruition.

Hardware is not going to be a problem, Nikolic explains, but software is a different, and problematic, kettle of fish.

Workers on the SKA project have been busy evaluating existing technologies and developing software prototypes.

“Everything we’ve tried, we’ve broken one way or another. Nothing works for us just out of the box. What we need to do is really figure out where to make our investment to make some of these technologies work the way we need them. That’s our current job.”

Most, but not all, of the SKA construction budget has been secured. The construction is due to begin in 2018, though, with initial observations being made by 2020.

It’s to be built in two phases, with phase one (2018-2023) representing about 10 per cent of the telescope’s overall capability. This phase was cost-capped at 650 million euros in 2013, while the cost of phase two, scheduled to be completed by 2030, has not yet been established.

When it is finally up and running, it will be 1,000 times more powerful than the world’s most powerful telescope currently and, according to Nikolic, will form the cornerstone of astronomy for the subsequent 50 years.

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