In search of life 30,000-plus light years away from our solar system, scientists on earth have finalised plans to set up a Square Kilometre Array (SKA) housing 8,000 antennae and discs, occupying a surface area of 50,000 sq metres. This SKA would be a hundred times more powerful than the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) commissioned near Pune.
The project, to take off after selecting the site in 2008 and to be completed by 2020, will be supported by 17 nations including India, at an investment of around $2 billion.
?The antennae will help scientists tap bio-signatures existing in the universe outside our planet,? said the Govind Swarup, Fellow of the Royal Society and professor emeritus at the Pune-based National Centre for Radio Astrophysics. The proposed SKA will enable scientists to search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. Swarup is here in Chidambaram to participate in the 94th Indian Science Congress.
Swarup said that according to the Drake Equation, there are about 10,000 planets in the universe where there can be a possibility of existence of life.
Swarup, who is actively associated with the project, has suggested that each of the 8,000 antennas should be of 12-metre diameter. He suggested that India can effectively make its contribution by developing software and antennas for the project, which would cover 15% of the total cost.
He revealed that South Africa and Australia have been shortlisted for the site of the SKA project. ?The decision on the site is likely to be taken in 2008 and thereafter the issue of fund-raising will be finalised by 2010,? he said.
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tata Consultancy Services and Persistent Vision have evinced interest in the project, said Swarup. ?I am working to form a core group for software specialists based in Pune to work on the project,? he said.