SA?s SKA radio telescope worlds largest

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SA s SKA radio telescope worlds largest --

Fri, 22 Nov 2013 16:23

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This Friday on Al Jazeera s talk show South2North, Redi Tlhabi discusses the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope and Africa s new positioning as a space hub.

Says Tlhabi at the beginning of the show: Do you ever gaze at the stars and wonder how it all began and whether there is life out there? If so, the answers may come from unexpected quarters.

Tlhabi continues by saying that money is being pumped into space exploration in countries such as China and India. And here in Africa, South Africa recently won a bid to co-host the world s largest radio telescope, a project that could see Africa emerge as a leading global science frontier.

Top scientists and engineers from all over the world are flocking to the continent are eager to find answers to some of astronomy s long-standing mysteries. So what discoveries do they have in store for us? And how will the region benefit as a whole?

Tlhabi is joined in studio by Square Kilometre Array research chair professor Oleg Smirnov from Russia; Chinese American astrophysicist Dr Hsin Cynthia Chiang; and development expert Fumani Mthembi.

Smirnov explains that SKA is going to be more sensitive by a huge margin over anything we have right now.

In terms of South Africa s new positioning as a space hub, he says the country already has emerged and people just want to come here and join the excitement.

Chiang s previous post was in the South Pole. A lot of the telescopes are located in very remote locations, because that s where we have access to the cleanest skies. The Karoo is another excellent example and that s where the SKA will be located.

She and Smirnov say the SKA team is diverse, but includes many South Africans. We do have a very vibrant community of South Africans working on the project so it s not just a plot of land by any means, says Chiang. The SKA offices in Cape Town are brimming with people and young scientists who will eventually transform the country.

Smirnov says SKA s phase one budget is 600m Euros, which comes from international contributors in addition to South Africa.

Mthembi says the development question we should be asking is what does it mean for us, the people to whom the land belongs?

She challenges the idea that, To the extent that there s money flowing into the country, that means there s development. Development is about justice, about equality, about spreading benefits, and those are the things our state is failing at.

The group discusses the benefits of astronomy and also talks about SKA s public outreach programme, the role of universities in SKA, India sending rockets to Mars, and whether or not aliens exist.

This week s episode of South2North premieres at 19h30 GMT on Friday, 22 November 2013 and also screens on Saturday at 14h30, Sunday at 04h30 and Monday at 08h30.

For more info, visit www.aljazeera.com/programmes/south2north/.

Catch up on last week s episode, where Redi discussed the dark side of diamonds, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXoW8p_3AwE.

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