Boost In World's Biggest Science Project

NZ's Chance In World's Biggest Science Project Boosted

AUT University is investing $500,000 in a prototype radio telescope which will boost New Zealand's chances of co-hosting the world's biggest science project - the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

The 12m radio telescope antenna will enable AUT's Centre for Radio Physics and Space Research to collect and process massive amounts of data from space as part of SKA, a $2.5 billion project to create the world's biggest radio telescope.

SKA will allow scientists to probe radiation sources originating from the beginning of the universe billions of years ago.

Centre director Professor Sergei Gulyaev says the new radio telescope is an essential tool in the Australia-New Zealand consortium bid to host SKA.

The dish will be built by leading US satellite communications company Patriot Antenna Systems and should be ready for installation near Auckland later this year.

The radio telescope has been designed for New Zealand with input from the international scientific community and will be used as a prototype by other countries, including Australia.

"The specifications for this dish are setting a new benchmark in radio astronomy and have been the subject of considerable global scientific discussion," says Professor Gulyaev.

Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack says AUT's investment in the radio telescope will add significantly to New Zealand's research potential in radio astronomy.

"This is an exciting and significant initiative for AUT," he says. "It represents a major step forward in our own research and also in our development as a university, working collaboratively with international research programmes."

Professor Gulyaev says the centre now needs another $3 million in funding to install and maintain the radio telescope. At present the researchers are using a radio ham's dish to collect data.

"We have the knowledge and technology, we have the right conditions all we need now is the financial backing to make New Zealand's involvement in SKA a reality," he says.

SKA will study, among other things, the centre of our galaxy the Milky Way and the most powerful sources of energy in the universe, the nuclei of active galaxies and quasar systems.

The Australasian consortium and southern Africa are the final contenders for the rights to host SKA. The winner will be announced later this year.

The core site for the Australasian bid is in Western Australia. Proposed New Zealand sites include Warkworth and Ardmore in the North Island and Awarua and Rangiora in the South Island.

Professor Gulyaev and his team use Very Long Baseline Interferometry, a technique that analyses simultaneously collected data from separate radio telescopes. They plan to use the Kiwi Advanced Research Network (KAREN) and its Australian twin AARNet in the SKA research.

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