{"id":15719,"date":"2012-10-19T06:07:04","date_gmt":"2012-10-19T04:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/factbox-is-anyone-out-there-new-telescopes-aim-to-find-out\/"},"modified":"2012-10-19T06:07:04","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T04:07:04","slug":"factbox-is-anyone-out-there-new-telescopes-aim-to-find-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/factbox-is-anyone-out-there-new-telescopes-aim-to-find-out\/","title":{"rendered":"FACTBOX-Is anyone out there? New telescopes aim to find out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

Oct 18 (Reuters) – Here is a look at a new generation of
\ntelescopes which scientists hope will help answer fundamental
\nquestions about the origin and evolution of the universe and
\nwhether there is life beyond our planet.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* SQUARE KILOMETRE ARRAY (SKA) RADIO TELESCOPE: Earlier this
\nmonth, the Australia Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP)
\nstarted peering into the universe from a remote cattle station
\nin Western Australia state. With 36 antennas, ASKAP is the first
\nbuilding block in the SKA which will be based in Australia and
\nSouth Africa. It should be fully operational by 2024.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* The new telescope will be 50 times more sensitive and
\n10,000 times faster than any other telescope on the planet,
\naccording to the international consortium funding the $2 billion
\nproject. The SKA central computer will have the processing power
\nof about one hundred million PCs and will use enough optical
\nfibre to wrap twice around the Earth. It will generate enough
\nraw data to fill 15 million 64 GB iPods every day.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* EUROPEAN EXTREMELY LARGE TELESCOPE (E-ELT): The E-ELT will
\nbe located on a mountain at an altitude of 3,060 metres in the
\ncentral part of Chile’s Atacama Desert. It will aim to track
\ndown Earth-like planets around other stars in so-called
\n“habitable zones” and will also carry out “stellar archaeology”
\nin nearby galaxies.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* It is expected to have a mirror 40 metres in diameter,
\ncovering a field on the sky about a tenth the size of the full
\nMoon. The primary mirror will consist of almost 800 segments,
\neach 1.4 metres wide, but only 50 mm thick. The E-ELT’s
\ninstruments will allow astronomers to probe the earliest stages
\nof the formation of planetary systems and to detect water and
\norganic molecules around stars in the making.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE: An international
\ncollaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and
\nthe Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Webb will have a large mirror,
\n6.5 metres (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a
\ntennis court. It will be in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1
\nmillion miles) from the Earth. Named after a NASA administrator
\nwho oversaw the early Apollo programmes, the project is a
\nreplacement for the Hubble Telescope. It is due to enter into
\nservice in 2018.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oct 18 (Reuters) – Here is a look at a new generation of telescopes which scientists hope will help answer fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of the universe and whether there is life beyond our planet. * SQUARE KILOMETRE ARRAY (SKA) RADIO TELESCOPE: Earlier this month, the Australia Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}