With both elements of the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) under construction, the organisation responsible for creating and operating it, the SKA Observatory (SKAO), has released a book, “Advancing Astrophysics II’, that highlights the huge range of research that the SKA will allow. (A previous book had been published by the SKAO’s predecessor, the SKA Organisation, in 2015.)
South Africa is hosting the SKA-Mid instrument, which will eventually have 197 dishes, incorporating the country’s own, existing, MeerKAT array, while Australia is hosting the SKA-Low instrument, which will eventually comprise 131 072 antennas. The SKA-Low released its first test image, captured using 1 024 antennas, in March last year. The SKA-Mid is expected to do the same later this year, using four dishes. The SKAO head office is hosted by the UK.
The new book contains 221 peer-reviewed papers, produced by more than 1 500 scientists in 51 countries. (The SKAO has 14 full member countries.) These papers cover all the areas of scientific research that the SKA instruments will undertake. They are grouped into six sections, entitled the Sun, Earth and planets, the formation and evolution of stars, from the Milky Way to distant galaxies, the cosmos, the extreme universe, and, methods and techniques.
