Page 34 - Life beyond the Karman

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope is among the most well- known telescopes in the world. Located on the Hawaiian island of Maui, 3,000 metres above sea level, it is the largest solar telescope in the world. Its mirror is four metres in diameter.
With a focus on understanding the sun’s explosive behaviour, observations of magnetic fields are at the forefront of this innovative telescope’s science mission.
The scientific goal of this revolutionary telescope is centred on magnetic field measurements, with a particular emphasis on understanding the sun’s explosive behaviour.
Modern polarimetry combined with an off-axis design to minimise scattered light resulted in the first continuous measurements of the magnetic fields in the solar corona. With its advanced instrument suite, the DKIST 4-metre mirror gathers previously unheard-of images from the sun’s surface to the lower solar atmosphere, with views of the atmosphere focused on minute changes that are observed.
The spectroscopic capabilities of this solar telescope are amazing. The distinctive fingerprints left by hundreds of atoms and ions across the solar surface and atmosphere are observed, which contributes to the understanding of the sun’s dynamic behaviour.
500-METRE APERTURE SPHERICAL TELESCOPE (FAST)
FAST is located in a karst depression in Guizhou, China. It is a radio telescope with a diameter of 1,640 feet (500 metres). With its innovative design, FAST has broken the 100-metre engineering limit for telescope construction and created a new mode to build large radio telescopes.
Its scientific goals include detecting neutral hydrogen near the cosmos’ edge and reconstructing images of the early universe, discovering pulsars building a pulsar timing array, and engaging in pulsar navigation and gravitational wave detection in the future. It aims to join the International Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network to obtain hyperfine structures of celestial bodies, conduct a high-resolution radio spectrum scan and participate in the quest for extra-terrestrial intelligence.
EXTREMELY LARGE TELESCOPE (ELT)
The Extremely Large Telescope was designed by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and is in Chile’s Atacama Desert. It is a 39.3-metre optical-infrared telescope set to be completed in 2027. Its goals include the discovery of Earth-like planets and the search for life beyond the Solar System.
The ELT’s large mirror surface area of 10,527 square feet (978 square metres) will allow it to capture 100,000,000 times more light than the human eye. The telescope will be housed in a massive, 262-foot (80-metre) tall spinning dome weighing roughly 6,000 tonnes. In July 2023, the telescope reached the halfway point of its development and construction, with completion and first light scheduled for 2028.
SQUARE KILOMETRE ARRAY (SKA)
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA project) is an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope, with a square kilometre (one million square metres) of collecting area.
The square kilometre array is a phased array. Chosen for their extremely remote location, the Karoo region of South Africa and Murchison Shire of Western Australia are hosting this massive radio telescope array. Work is in progress for Australia to be home to 512 telescope stations, while 200 are to be built in South Africa.
The SKA Organisation, headquartered at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Manchester, UK, was founded in December 2011 as a non-profit organisation to formalise international partnerships and centralise project leadership. It is currently made up of 11 countries: Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India (associate member), Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK.
The first completed dishes have already produced images and have started attracting great interest internationally. More than 500 international astronomers and 58 from Africa submitted proposals to conduct science with MeerKAT (SKA) once it is complete.
Scientists anticipate that this project will result in telescope arrays that are 100 times more sensitive than today’s best sites, as well as a sky scanning time that is around one million times
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LIFE BEYOND THE KÁRMÁN LINE - OUTER SPACE