SYDNEY, April 15 (Xinhua) -- The world's largest radio telescope is being planned for Australia.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope project with an investment of 387 million Australian dollars (about 298.9 million U.S. dollar) will be built in Murchison region in the state of Western Australia (WA).
Radio telescopes receive radio waves from space. A vast network of antennas reflects the radio waves to a receiver. By studying the waves, astronomers can learn about the composition and movement of planets, comets, giant gas clouds, stars and galaxies.
The project will include a super-computing center, to be based in the state's capital Perth, to process the unprecedented amount of data that will be generated by the radio telescope.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the SKA radio telescope would put the country at the cutting edge of science and technology research.
"The SKA will help our scientists make more discoveries than we can imagine today. Whether it's better understanding the origin and future of our stars and galaxies to how gravity works across the universe," Morrison said.
The SKA is a collaboration between 16 countries, including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain.
Global construction is due to begin in the second half of this year with work expected to begin in WA from early 2022.