Mega-telescope: supported by cloud computing

A project for a colossal radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), is gearing up. But we don't yet know where it will all happen. Australia and New Zealand have joined forces against South Africa in the hope of hosting the infrastructure.


To manage the flow of data the project will produce, researchers from Australia and New Zealand are planning to rely on cloud computing. In September, a campaign will be launched to recruit citizens who will make their computers available with the aim of forming a gigantic calculation network. We should add that SKA won't be totally operational before 2020.

50 times more sensitive than current radio telescopes, SKA will be made up of 3,000 parabolic antennae, spread out in a park with a radius of more than 3,000 kilometres. In total, the collecting surface will equate to one square kilometre!.

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