＂World Giant Eye＂ SKA looks forward to more Chinese scholars participating in research

Science and Technology Daily Reporter & ENSP; Zhang Huan

Speaking of radio telescope, the Chinese people must be familiar with “Sky Eye”, which is located in Guizhou’s 500 -meter caliber.

However, the large -scale international scientific project, which is under construction, the square -kilometer array radio telescope (hereinafter referred to as SKA), will be the largest radio telescope in the history of mankind.

Recently, the Eleventh Council of the Flame Corridor (SKAO) was held in Nanjing.This is the first time that the SKAO Council has held a meeting in China, which fully reflects the high recognition and trust of the international community in terms of scientific and technological innovation and the construction of large scientific installations.Important roles and responsibilities.

Skao Director -General Philip Dimmond, Wu Xuefeng, deputy director of the Zijin Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Wu Xuefeng and other astronomers pointed out in an interview with a reporter from the Science and Technology Daily that SKA faces many challenges, solving these problems requires international cooperation, and China has always played an important role internationally.I hope more Chinese scholars will participate in Skao.

Multi -country jointly build the maximum radio telescope

SKA is the world’s largest -scale integrated pore diameter radio telescope built and operated by the world’s largest joint ventures.In 2019, China, as a founding member of SKAO, signed the Convention on the Establishment of the Flame in Rome.

If“”The Chinese eye “” big pot “is like a” big pot “, then SKA is thousands of” small pots “and” antenna “that are scattered. The two have their own advantages, but SKA can see farther and clearer.

Researcher Wu Xuefeng introduced that SKA is a array telescope. The first phase of the construction is expected to be completed in 2028. Among them, the mid -frequency band includes the 15 -meter reflective surface of the 197 -sided side, and the low frequency array is 130,000 small puppet antennas.

Considering the influence of the electromagnetic environment, the SKA mid -frequency antenna is located in South Africa. The low -frequency antenna is located in Australia. The two sides of the work form a radio telescope with a baseline length of thousands of kilometers. The receiving area is unprecedented.

This method has a precedent internationally.In 2017, the International Cooperation “Event Vision Telescope” (EHT), which will form an eight Asian millimeter wave telescope distributed in the world, formed a “virtual telescope” equivalent to the size of the earth’s caliber.

SKA is not only a radio telescopic mirror array, but also an advanced data -intensive scientific computing platform.

Wu Xuefeng said that SKA integrates innovative technologies such as phase plane phase control arrays antenna. The phase control array antenna can flexibly control the beam direction without turning, greatly improving the flexibility of observation.

SKA will also produce unprecedented massive observation data. After the completion of the second phase of the project, the amount of data per second will exceed the current amount of data per second of the global Internet.

“The first stage of SKA spent reached 2 billion euros, and it also integrated a number of cutting -edge technologies, which is a huge challenge for any single country, so it is used in international cooperation models.” Wu Xuefeng said.

Explore the universe without Chinese scholars

“Like all big projects, we have challenges, including financial challenges and technical challenges.” Philip Dimmond said that SKA, which is being built, is a large scientific project of no ancients.”How a huge challenge is to process all data, we will generate more data than any other scientific projects. Therefore, we must develop technology, algorithms and software to process all these data and generate science.“

Philip Dimmond said that in order to solve these problems, international cooperation is needed.”Human beings have entered the era of large science. From a fundamental point of view, big science requires international unity cooperation, especially astronomy. So I think it is important to participate in international cooperation for China.”

The reporter learned that China’s contribution to SKA has two aspects. One is to provide corresponding construction funds, and the other is to create low -frequency antennas.At present, related equipment has been installed in South Africa.

Wu Xuefeng introduced that SKA will observe on the ultra-wide-frequency band of 50MHz-15.4GHz. The coverage is much wider than the existing radio telescope, which helps to discover novels and phenomena. It is also expected to solve some fundamental scientific questions: such as answeringHow the universe has evolved from the “Dark Age” to the present, how the earliest stars and galaxies are formed, revealing the nature and distribution of dark matter, studying planet formation and system evolution, and opening up new horizons for cosmology and life research.

It can be said that every breakthrough discovery will become a huge leap and breakthrough in natural cognition.Among them, Chinese scholars must also be involved.

It is understood that at present, scientific researchers in my country have completed the prototype system of the China site of the SKA regional center, and have made significant contributions to the smooth advancement of SKAO.And using Fast and other as the SKA roads telescope, it carried out pre -research projects such as fast radio violence, pulse stars, gravitational waves to accumulate experience in the future SKAO key science projects.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has also selected 10 scientific directions that are highly fitted with SKA’s priority science goals, and gradually established the Chinese SKA “2 + 1” scientific goal. Among them, “2” is two key scientific directions, “1” is eight special scientific directions.Essence