A team of physicists at the University of Malta has developed an innovative antenna that is being tested to form part of the technology behind the world’s largest radio telescope – the Square Kilometre Array project.

After five years of hard work, a patent application for this revolutionary technology was submitted and funding obtained to build a prototype and start field trials of the novel low-cost antenna.

“This antenna, which is 10 times cheaper, is more suitable than any other technology the SKA is planning to use,” astrophysicist Kristian Zarb Adami, who forms part of the team, said.

The SKA – one of the biggest scientific infrastructures on earth – is hoping to answer some of life’s elusive questions, such as whether there is other life in the universe.

Touted as one of the world’s most exciting international science projects, it will investigate how the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang, how dark energy is accelerating the expansion of the universe, the nature of gravity and will even search for life beyond earth, among others.