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SKAO

A composite image of the future SKA telescopes, blending what already exists on site with artist's impressions. From left: An artist's impression of the future SKA-Mid dishes blend into the existing precursor MeerKAT telescope dishes in South Africa. From right: A artist's impression of the future SKA-Low stations blends into the existing AAVS2.0 prototype station in Australia. Credit: SKAO
Composite image of the SKA telescopes, blending real hardware already on site with artist's impressions. From left: An artist's impression of the future SKA-Mid dishes blend into the existing precursor MeerKAT telescope dishes in South Africa. From right: An artist's impression of the future SKA-Low stations blends into the existing AAVS2.0 prototype station in Western Australia. Credit: SKAO

The world’s largest radio observatory

The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) is a next-generation radio astronomy-driven Big Data facility that will revolutionise our understanding of the Universe and the laws of fundamental physics.

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The SKA telescopes

The SKA telescopes will consist of two cutting-edge arrays:

  • SKA-Low in Western Australia, comprising 131,072 low-frequency antennas, is designed to study the early universe and the formation of the first stars and galaxies.
  • SKA-Mid in South Africa, featuring 197 mid-frequency dishes, will probe galaxy evolution, cosmic magnetism, and exoplanet systems.

Composed of respectively hundreds of dishes and thousands of antennas, the SKAO’s telescopes will be the two most advanced radio telescopes on Earth.

Together with other state-of-the-art research facilities, the SKAO’s telescopes will explore the unknown frontiers of science and deepen our understanding of key processes, including the formation and evolution of galaxies, fundamental physics in extreme environments and the origins of life.

This image emphasises the large-scale structure from our Milky Way. Famous structures known from other radio surveys such as the North Polar Spur can be seen. Several notable locations are marked: the Galactic Centre (GC), the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A (CenA), and M87, the giant elliptical galaxy in the Virgo Cluster. This data was obtained at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamaji as the Traditional Owners and Native Title Holders of the observatory site. Credits: SKAO

ICE-CSIC's participation

ICE-CSIC is involved in several scientific working groups, such as the SKA Continuum, SKA-VLBI, SKA-Cradle of life, SKA-Our Galaxy, SKA-Cosmic Magnetism, SKA-Pulsar or SKA-Transients, and is actively contributing to writing multiple chapters of the SKAO Science Book. 

Senior institute members involved

Meet the senior researchers who lead our participation in the SKAO mission.

Mar Mezcua

Josep Miquel Girart

Nanda Rea

Álvaro Sánchez-Monge