Editing Square Kilometre Array (section)

{{Short description|International radio telescope project}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Use South African English|date=May 2012}}
{{Coord|30|43|16|S|21|24|40|E|display=title}}
{{Infobox telescope
| location = [[Meerkat National Park]], South Africa and [[Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory]], Australia
| coords = {{Coord|30|43|16|S|21|24|40|E}} and {{Coord|26|41|49.3|S|116|37|52.6|E}}
| first_light = 2027 (projected)
| locmapin = South Africa, Australia
}}
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The '''Square Kilometre Array''' ('''SKA''') is an [[intergovernmental organisation|intergovernmental]] international [[radio telescope]] project being built in Australia (low-frequency) and South Africa (mid-frequency). The combining infrastructure, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), and headquarters, are located at the [[Jodrell Bank Observatory]] in the United Kingdom. The SKA cores are being built in the [[southern hemisphere]], where the view of the [[Milky Way]] galaxy is the best and [[radio interference]] is at its least.

Conceived in the 1990s, and further developed and designed by the late-2010s, when completed {{update after |2029 |text=sometime in the 2020s it will have}} a total collecting area of approximately one [[square kilometre]]. It will operate over a wide range of frequencies and its size will make it 50 times more sensitive than any other radio instrument. If built as planned, it should be able to [[Astronomical survey|survey the sky]] more than ten thousand times faster than before. With receiving stations extending out to a distance of at least {{cvt|3,000|km}} from a concentrated central core, it will exploit [[radio astronomy]]'s ability to provide the highest-resolution images in all astronomy.

The SKAO consortium was founded in [[Rome]] in March 2019 by seven initial member countries, with several others subsequently joining; {{as of|2021|lc=y}} there were 14 members of the consortium. This international organisation is tasked with building and operating the facility. The project has two phases of construction: the current SKA1, commonly just called SKA, and a possible later significantly enlarged phase sometimes called SKA2. The construction phase of the project began on 5 December 2022 in both South Africa and Australia.