An internationally owned and operated radio telescope that, when completed around 2030, will have a collecting area of more than one square kilometre, making it by far the largest and most sensitive radio telescope on Earth. The SKA is divided between two sites, one in South Africa and the other in Australia, with headquarters at Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK. The South African section, known as SKA-MID, will observe at mid frequencies, between 350 MHz and 20 GHz (0.86 m–15 mm), while the Australian section, SKA-LOW, will cover low frequencies from 50 to 350 MHz (6–0.86 m). The SKA is being built in two stages. In Phase 1, starting in 2018, 133 dishes of 15-m aperture will be installed in the Karoo region of Northern Cape province, South Africa, joining the existing 64 dishes of the precursor array called MeerKAT and providing baselines up to 150 km. In Australia, 130 000 conical dipole antennae each about 2 m high, grouped into 512 stations, will be placed in and around the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia, with baselines up to 65 km. At both sites, the aerials will be arranged along spiral arms extending from a central core. In Phase 2, from 2023 onwards, both sections of the SKA will be considerably expanded with additional aerials, increasing the collecting area tenfold and offering longer baselines. SKA-MID will grow to thousands of dishes, some sited in other African countries. In addition, a Mid-Frequency Aperture Array (MFAA) covering frequencies from 400 MHz upwards may be added. SKA-LOW in Australia will grow to as many as a million dipole antennae. The SKA organization consists of 10 member countries: Australia, Canada, China, India, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, and the UK.

http://www.skatelescope.org/ Official telescope website.