Aussie super-scope begins ET hunt..

The initial stage of unprecedented radio telescope has been officially opened in Australia. The project will explore the universe in search of new galaxies, black holes, planets and even intelligent extraterrestrial life – if there is any. In the heart of red desert where man-made radio signals are minimal the AUS$152 million worth telescope will scan space for traces of the beginning of the universe, the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies, explore ‘dark matter that forms 95 per cent of the universe, check out Einstein's theory of relativity, and – who knows – it might find some proof of other life in the Universe. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has finalized construction of a radio telescope at the Murchison Radio Astronomy Observatory, situated some 300 kilometers northeast of Geraldton, in Western Australia. The director of CSIRO SKA project Brian Boyle said that the 36 dish Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) will “really push the boundaries of our knowledge of the physical laws in the universe". The search for extraterrestrial life is going to be “almost a parallel activity to all the survey work that's being done," Boyle said. The ASKAP project is a part of a colossal $2.5 billion Square Kilometer Array Project to be completed by 2024 that would unite three large radio telescopes, two of them – in South Africa (MeerKAT and KAT-7 telescopes) and New Zealand – are yet to be constructed. Starting from 2016 an additional 60 dishes will be added to the Australian ASKAP observatory together with thousands of antennas. The project is called Square Kilometer Array because all three sites will be made up of a large number of linked antennas with the total surface area of each one approximately one square kilometer. Currently 13 countries and nearly 100 organizations are contributing to the project.

Interesting facts about the Square Kilometer Array Project: Once finished the SKA project will become at least 50 times more powerful and 10,000 times faster than any other existing radio telescope on our planet The data collected by the SKA in a 24-hour period, would take nearly two million years to play back on an iPod. The SKA will generate enough raw data every day to fill 15 million 64 GB iPods. The SKA central computer will have the processing power of about one hundred million PCs. The SKA will use enough optical fibre to wrap twice around the Earth. The dishes of the SKA will produce 10 times the current global internet traffic. The aperture arrays will produce more than 100 times the current global internet traffic. The SKA super-computer will perform operations per second equivalent to the number of stars in three million Milky Way-size galaxies. The SKA will be so sensitive that it will be able to detect an airport radar on a planet 50 light years away.

This is truly amazing, I wish more countries would get together and do this kind of thing. I love astronomy and for countries to actually spend billions of dollars on science going for a good cause, is really rare but it's amazing!

This new Dish looks very promising , and apparently need a SUPER computer to run this thing. But none the less, it's just amazing seeing countries trying to see whats beyond our borders, and not focusing so much on war.. I swear, Us humans can accomplish and learn so many new things if we weren't focused on wars, and terrorism.. Could you just imagine and everyone got along and would do a joint space program, all the cool stuff we could find in our universe!!!!







Source

absolutely LOVE seeing stuff like this , the possibilities are endless !
Hopefully this will be an exciting start.
Thanks for the post

As the last person said. I love these types of things. I want more information on the universe and what is in it. I hope in this life time, i get most my questions answered. I also, wish that other countries got together in search of other life and other planets capable of life. Great leap though. We can only hope this goes well.

When it's done in 12 years it will be obsolete no? YAWNTASTIC!

The SKA will be so sensitive that it will be able to detect an airport radar on a planet 50 light years away.

That is so cool. 2016 and 2018 will be revolutionary years for the science of astronomy. While this radio telescope will be looking for ETs, the James Webb infrared telescope will be observing light from the beginning of our Universe.

The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope. The project is working to a 2018 launch date. Webb will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Webb will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System. Webb's instruments will be designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range.

Webb will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror and sunshade won't fit onto a rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open once Webb is in outer space. Webb will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth.

The James Webb Space Telescope was named after the NASA Administrator who crafted the Apollo program, and who was a staunch supporter of space science.

James Webb telescope

I thought I would bring some positive news, instead of hearing all this politic crap going on in the middle east, it's sometimes nice to take a break from that stupid crap. It's nice to focus on something that's actually going for a good cause!

I'm sick of politics, I hear about it and read about it everyday..It's getting dull and boring and just the same 'ol stuff going on..

So to actually have some positive news about something scientific that has great potential it's good to see, and read about it!

reply to post by zonetripper2065


Although things like software and the like will be obsolete, the basic concept and design won't be.

Dished radio telescopes were first used in the late 1930's and the design hasn't changed much even today...


Grote Reber's original Radio Antenna - 1937

Originally posted by live2beknown

But none the less, it's just amazing seeing countries trying to see whats beyond our borders, and not focusing so much on war.. I swear, Us humans can accomplish and learn so many new things if we weren't focused on wars, and terrorism.. Could you just imagine and everyone got along and would do a joint space program, all the cool stuff we could find in our universe!!!!

Had to chime in here - thanks for the OP! really intersting to me for quite some time, and I'm very happy find asomething that species-wise seems to be very worthwhile. Thanks for posting this.

As for the possible accomplishments I'd like to greed and power to your list of focii. These four weaknesses are what I firmly believe will bring about the demise of the human race.

edit on 8-10-2012 by PaTommyJ because: (no reason given)

reply to post by live2beknown


Glad to see this happen however to see all the ET craft they will have to change the entire paradigm of what they perceive ET craft to be and how to spot it here on earth. They are here all the time, the visitors who traverse the planet come and go and are rarely seen because of their ability to disguise themselves. No doubt there is much to see with this powerful telescope but ET life is another subject. Sounds like more disinfo and distraction from their presence to me.

reply to post by antar


True, But it does seem promising..To see a "gas station" 50 million miles away, that's pretty intense if you ask me. But, It's not going to be cheap as it will consume Trillions of TB of data, and the internet bill whoa, watch out that's going to be at least millions a year! I doubt it's just for trying to find ET, I'm sure its also for space exploration.
But as I said, I'd rather my tax money spent on stuff like this, than waste it on stupid wars.. because a few people just can't get along, rather childish...

When did iPods become the standard unit of data capacity? The biggest iPod can hold what, 64GB? So how is that impressive that the scope collects millions of iPods worth of data in every sweep?

Why not use your standard Chinese flag cargo carrier instead? One of those can hold a billion 3TB hard drives and has just as much chance of being used to actually store the data from this scope as the iPod super computer array the author seems to think exists. Or maybe we could see how many floppy disks fit in a one of those "Cube" cars?

While I realize the media no longer represents accuracy of information in any possible meaning of the concept it still worries me when I see the boundaries of techno porn being stretched so strenuously.

Originally posted by live2beknown
reply to post by antar

 

True, But it does seem promising..To see a "gas station" 50 million miles away, that's pretty intense if you ask me. But, It's not going to be cheap as it will consume Trillions of TB of data, and the internet bill whoa, watch out that's going to be at least millions a year! I doubt it's just for trying to find ET, I'm sure its also for space exploration.
But as I said, I'd rather my tax money spent on stuff like this, than waste it on stupid wars.. because a few people just can't get along, rather childish...

Why any technology dependent on petabytes and petabytes worth of Internet bandwidth would be placed in Australia is the real mystery here. That might explain the entire iPod fixation though, perhaps the data from the scope is downloaded to the billion iPod super computer array every night and the iPods are then shipped UPS to the US and UK ? Sadly it would still be a month faster than sending the data over the Internet....

Originally posted by live2beknown
reply to post by antar

 

But as I said, I'd rather my tax money spent on stuff like this, than waste it on stupid wars.. because a few people just can't get along, rather childish...

Precisely. I think of the Earth as a giant house, with 6 billion roomies. Some of them flat refuse to get along, and would rather spend the household income on stupid shiz, such as lobbing explosives across halls, and invading others' bedrooms, stealing other people's stuff, etc.
Space exploration, to me, is the equivalent of saying, "Eff you, roomies, eff you" and setting up shop at the windows to look & listen around the neighborhood. They haven't figured out how to leave the house yet, at least not very far (think of the moon as something like the back yard to an extent) but if you don't study and think of new ways to get out that door & off the property, it's never gonna happen. So eff my planetary roomies who can't or won't get along. I'd like us to be able to figure out the mechanics so we can explore the other houses on the block eventually. We might even find that the houses aren't all as empty as they look to us, "Dude, check this out! Dude! Dude! That house we thought was empty, it isn't, someone lives there, listen! Look! Isn't that wild?" That would bring a whole new meaning to "Meeting the neighbors", at least in terms of finding them first.

Making things go boom across the hall gets REAL old fast. Exploring the neighborhood & meeting the neighbors is so much more interesting that finding newer ways of annihilating the irritating roomie across the hall.

reply to post by Chadwickus


So we can consider this akin to an earth bound voyager 1, awesome.

reply to post by ecoparity


They were stating it is equivalent to that many iPods..iPods has nothing to do with this, Nice to know you didn't read it well.. The article was just showing you what the equivalence to that much Data compared to everyday devices. It clearly never stated "oh, we have 10000 iPods to sync all our data too.."

reply to post by Nyiah


Although, come to think of it..Annihilating an annoying roommate would be pretty awesome just sayyying, I've had some annoying loser ones before that I wouldn't mind sending a few rockets at hehe Ah crap, I'm starting to sound like America..FML

reply to post by live2beknown


Oh agreed. I would rather see the future happen now as well. We can never get to the future until we stop fighting wars today and put off space advancements until tomorrow. Today is when we make changes for the future, and this is making strides in the right direction.

I think the Auzzies need this right now too, they have typically tried to lead by positive example in the world in my opinion, yet war and negativity is seeping into their lives as well, so yes, something to be proud of, look forward to and to stand behind and support.

I wish them the best and hope they find that peaceful planet with the best waves the earth based surfboard has ever encountered. (When I think of OZ I think of surfing, fun, positive energy and clean living with respect for life and love)...

I wish people would stop wasting money and time on this...

Originally posted by antar
reply to post by live2beknown

 

Glad to see this happen however to see all the ET craft they will have to change the entire paradigm of what they perceive ET craft to be and how to spot it here on earth. They are here all the time, the visitors who traverse the planet come and go and are rarely seen because of their ability to disguise themselves. No doubt there is much to see with this powerful telescope but ET life is another subject. Sounds like more disinfo and distraction from their presence to me.

Sometimes they are not able to cloak if the cloaking isn't working as in the case of Gary Wilcox 1964, April 24th. 10:00 am and of course that same day with what seems like the same oval craft April 24th, 1964 - Lonnie Zamora. That same year Donald Shrum book"Aliens in the Forest" 1964 as well. They all spotted a ufo and actual head to toe suited beings in ligher colored space suites.

You tube information on this, it is incredible!