Australia launches world’s fastest telescope to probe outer space

Australian scientists today unveiled the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (Askap), considered to be the world's fastest telescopes, which will have the ability to survey the universe, including the mapping of black holes and exploring the origins of galaxies.

The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (Askap), the world's biggest radio telescope project hosted jointly by South Africa, Australia and New Zealand comprising 36 dishes, was unveiled in remote Murchison, Western Australia today.

Askap is an important technology demonstrator for the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, a future international radio telescope that will be the world's largest and most sensitive. In addition to Askap's telescope infrastructure in Australia, the SKA telescope will also be deployed in southern Africa.

The $400 million project has already been booked for its first five years by 350 international researchers, who will conduct projects including a census of galaxies within several billion light years of Earth, and studies of magnetic fields and black holes, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Askap's combination of fast survey speed and high sensitivity will allow astronomers to answer some fundamental questions about the creation and early evolution of our universe, and to test theories of cosmic magnetism and predictions from Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Hailing the official opening of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, where the telescope system is located, SKA director Brian Boyle said part of the science programme would be the search for intelligent life.