A massive telescope for seeing the invisible

Some of the universe's greatest mysteries could soon be resolved thanks to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a huge radio telescope that will be built in South Africa and Australia. Several EPFL labs are involved in this epic project. With the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope, scientists hope to be able to view matter and forces that have been invisible until now. The SKA is an immense radio telescope that will span two sites: one in the Karoo desert in South Africa, and the other in the Murchison region of western Australia. Scientists from sixteen countries so far and around 100 research institutions, including EPFL, have teamed up for the project. "This will spawn a new era for our field," says Jean-Paul Kneib, head of EPFL's Laboratory of Astrophysics (LASTRO). The SKA will give scientists unprecedented capabilities for studying the universe.