Wednesday, 7th January 2009
Leading astronomers to discuss €1.5 billion project in Malta
Some of the world's most accomplished astronomers will be descending on the island tomorrow to discuss the planned Square Kilometre Array (SKA), an EU project to design the world's largest radio astronomical instrument.
Once built, the telescope will provide the most rigorous tests of general relativity, measure the properties of every single galaxy in the entire universe and investigate the possibility of life beyond the solar system.
This international effort includes partners from 26 institutes in 13 countries. One of the partners is Oxford University, whose design team for the project is coordinated by a Maltese scientist, Kristian Zarb Adami, a lecturer at the University of Malta and holder of a post-doctoral fellowship at Oxford.
The aim of the team in Oxford is to bring the concept of systems such as those developed for mobile phones to the radio astronomy world.
Current estimates for the cost of the project hover around the €1.5 billion mark, apart from running costs expected to top €100 million a year.
The SKA will have a radio wave-collecting area equivalent to a million square metres, making it 30 times more sensitive and 10,000 times faster than any other radio telescope in the world.
The telescope will be built using millions of antennae combined to form a "radio wide angle lens" that can constantly monitor the sky. But due to the inherent sensitive nature of the instrument, the telescope will have to be located in a remote location as far away as possible from human-generated interference, such as television and radio stations. Two regions are being mentioned for hosting the telescope: the Western Australian desert and the South African Karoo desert.
The old University building in Valletta will tomorrow and on Friday host the leading scientists and engineers partaking in the SKA project where they will discuss the future of the telescope before the next phase of EU funding goes on line in June.
Dr Zarb Adami said the meeting will be instrumental in determining the subsequent design directions of such a telescope and to ensure Europe is at the helm of the next stages of the development.
Through his position at Oxford and support from Charles Sammut from the University of Malta, Dr Zarb Adami invited students from Malta to join him in Oxford for summer projects with the aim of eventually having five Maltese students from the engineering, ICT and science faculties reading their doctorate as joint degrees between Oxford Astrophysics and the University of Malta.
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Comments
This would have avoided the many comments of those who skim through the first couple of words of the article and deem fit to comment!
I thought that you thought the project was going to be made in Malta.
It will be a great idea if the Astronomy Association and the University of Malta were to make a solar observatory and include the Malta Amateur Radio League since the number of sunspots has an immense effect on Radio propagation on short wave signals and radio amateurs in Malta can provide an input to the project. A general celestial observatory would also raise the interest and awareness of those who may be interested.
Oh, is that all? For 1.5bn euros I hoped it would make the coffee and play MP3s too.
Mind you, according to NASA (http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/021127a.html) there are at least 125 billion galaxies, so I guess measuring their properties for only 10 cents each would be a bargain!
there must be some communications problems that I am not expecting that this new technology will be installed in Malta
I took advantage of the news item to mention a new innovative idea of what Malta should be doing
In Malta there is the astronomical association and they should be the leaders in this project together with government university and the private sector
Example;
"The Astronomical Observatory of Lisbon is located in “Alcântara - Tapada da Ajuda”, in the city of Lisbon. It’s an institution that has been recognized internationally for the quality of its work in the field of positioning astronomy, since the 19th century.
In 1992, this institution came to depend on the University of Lisbon and in 1995 it was included in the Science Faculty of the University of Lisbon, with its operations directed towards research and scientific and historical dissemination."
I think that you got it wrong. The instrument will not be installed in Malta, but the suggested places are the Western Australian desert and the South African Karoo desert. It will be led by a Maltese Scientist/lecturer who will make us proud, but it is not envisaged to be set up in Malta because there is nowhere in Malta where the environment is free from human generated radio waves. In the 1960s there was a visual solar observatory in that sort of castle or whatever it was in Rabat further out from the Seminary run by a German scientist with automatic tracking of the sun, but alas as always happens in Malta the place has been vandalized and is in shambles. I think that it was to study the sun in what was known as the quiet sun year(s) when the number of sunspots on the face of the sun is a minimum, although I am not sure about this. It would have been an excellent idea since we have just been through the minimum of the 11 year cycle and the sunspots should start climbing back up this year.
How about a similar project UOM?
I have always had a dream that Malta should have a national astronomical observatory. I had discussed this with my late friend Frnco Serracino Inglott when the Ta Qali National Park was being constructed. I remeber that he agreed with the proposal.
Recently I have discussed this idea with some friends of mine to try to fine an EU fund stream under which this project can be funded. This could be a local and tourist attraction to enhance our tourism product. In foreign countries people have to queue to enter such institutions and it will also lead to employment opportunities.
Does anyone has more ideas on this topic? And please do not mix politics with this idea.