International collaboration to build the largest radio telescope in the world
Some of the research in the construction of the SKA happens at the University of Malta at the Institute of Space Sciences and Astronomy (ISSA). Established 5 years ago, ISSA started as a joint collaboration between the Faculties of Science, ICT and Engineering and is aimed at fostering cross-disciplinary research.
Maltese researchers are working on the planning, design and construction of various sub-elements of the radio telescope, most notably in monitoring and control software infrastructure as well as algorithm development for processing real-time radio data.
Recently, most of the work has focused on releasing the software infrastructure for a small-scale prototype of the Low-Frequency Aperture Array (LFAA). The LFAA is a set of a quarter of a million antennas covering the lowest frequency band for the SKA. The configuration is very close packed with 75% of the antennas within a 2 km diameter core and the remaining located along three spiral arms, extending out to a radius of 50 km. With so many antennas all having to be built to the same specification, the testing has to be incredibly rigorous to ensure longevity in the design. The prototype of LFAA will consist of a network of 400 low-frequency antennas and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016, followed by a deployment phase in the Australian desert. The LFAA will explore the origin of our Universe. It will study the plasma instants after the Big Bang, and help understand how matter, as we know it, emerged from it.