The Square Kilometre Array has had its fair share of controversy. In March, it was leaked that Australia’s proposal had been upstaged by South Africa and in April, we found out the final decision on where it would be constructed had been delayed. Well, the wait is over — the SKA Organisation has announced that everyone concerned will get a gold star, with the array to be built in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
The decision on the Square Kilometre Array telescope was initially expected sometime around March, and it had been tipped that South Africa, rather than Australia was on course to win the bid. Now it appears that those predictions may have been premature, as the SKA Organisation has instead decided to set up a working group to examine the bids.
When it’s built, the Square Kilometre Array will be the world’s largest radio telescope. Then, when it goes online, it will spit out one million terabytes of data each day — and IBM is trying to make a computer which can handle it.
Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNET) is gearing up for big projects like our continuing bid for Square-Kilometre Array—aka the world’s largest telescope. Most recently, that meant trialling upgrades boosting their optical fibe network to 40Gbps, clearing the way to hit 100Gbps within 12 months.
