India part of world's largest radio telescope project

DAE approves ₹1,250 cr, Pune’s NCRA to take lead

- ANJALI MARAR

EVEN AS ISRO on Monday launched a unique observatory to study X-rays and black holes in deep space and the stage is being set to construct the third node of the LIGO in Maharashtra, scientists in India will now also be part of the international mega-science project, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), that will function as the world's largest radio telescope.

The SKAO is not a single telescope but an array of thousands of antennas, to be installed in remote radio-quiet locations in South Africa and Australia, that will operate as one large unit meant to observe and study celestial phenomena.

India, through the Punebased National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) and some other institutions, has been involved in the development of SKA since its inception in the 1990s.

Considering the multinational collaboration, SKAO was established as an intergovernmental organisation in 2021 following years of negotiation in which India, too, participated.

Countries have to sign, and ratify, the SKAO convention to formally become members.