A highly sensitive next-generation radio observatory has come to life as construction of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is officially underway in Australia and South Africa. The dual-zone science facility will be one of the largest on Earth and will offer astronomers a new way to investigate some of the most fundamental questions about space when operations begin later this decade.

The SKA observatory, which has been under construction for nearly three decades, is the brainchild of astronomers from around the world who gathered in the 1980s to explore how radio waves can tell stories about the history of the universe. In 2012, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) deployed to two sites in South Africa and Australia to co-host the facility, taking advantage of the absence of man-made radio waves in remote areas for clear observations of space.

It will use more than 100,000 antennas at its Australian facility in Wajarri Country, Western Australia, and 197 antennas at the Karoo, South Africa, where the previous MeerKAT telescope is currently operating. This will make the SKA observatory the largest radio astronomy observatory in the world. Ceremonies will be held on Monday to mark the start of construction at both locations.

“The telescopes of the SKA observatory will be one of humanity’s greatest scientific achievements,” said Professor Philip Diamond, SKA CEO. “I’ve been involved with the SKA project for the past 30 years, so it’s an important milestone to finally see construction begin on site.” SKA observatory will be the world’s largest radio astronomy observatory

Once operational, the SKA observatory will use its unique sensitivity to detect radio signals from cosmic sources billions of light-years away. This will take the field of radio astronomy into a new field, allowing scientists to explore the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy and to study the early parts of the universe by documenting the birth and death of early stars to understand how galaxies formed.

Senior scientist at Australia’s Curtin Institute for Radio Astronomy, Dr. “To put the sensitivity of the SKA into perspective, the SKA can detect a cell phone in an astronaut’s pocket on Mars, 225 million kilometers away,” said Danny Price. Even more exciting, if there are intelligent societies with technologies similar to ours in nearby stars, the SKA will be able to detect mass radiation ‘leakage’ from their radio and telecommunications networks – the first telescope sensitive enough to do so.”