Construction work has started on the headquarters for the world's largest radio telescope project.
The ground-breaking event for the Square Kilometre Array Global Headquarters (SKA GHQ) has been held on the SKA premises at the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank site. It was attended by University of Manchester deputy vice-chancellor Professor Colin Bailey, SKA Organisation director-general Professor Philip Diamond, and representatives from the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Cheshire East Council.
The 45,208 sq ft SKA GHQ (pictured) will eventually be home to more than 135 staff from more than 13 countries, tasked with managing the construction and operations of the SKA telescopes, located in southern Africa and western Australia. The finished telescopes will be several times more sensitive and hundreds of times faster at mapping the sky than today's best radio astronomy facilities.
Equipped with a 10Gb/s connection to the national research network, the building will include 18 meeting rooms equipped with videoconferencing to work with teams spread over 20 time zones, as well as a council chamber which can be converted into a 159-seat auditorium for scientific conferences and public talks.
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