Görlitz in focus: Astronomers expect a revolution through Skao conference!

Görlitz in focus: Astronomers expect a revolution through Skao conference!

Görlitz, Deutschland - This day there is a lot of talk about the fascinating cosmos and the science of our time. From June 16 to 19, 2025 there will be an important conference in Görlitz, which brings together over 550 radio astronomers from all over the world. The occasion? The Square Kilometer Array Observatory (Skao), an ambitious project that is scheduled to start regular operation in 2029. With a network of hundreds of radio telescopes and over 100,000 antennas, distributed in South Africa and Australia, the skao brings astrophysics into a new era. According to MDR it is even planned to improve the observation of the universe in the radio wave area to improve 30 times.

The skao is described as the most sensitive radio telescope in the world. In the future, new details will provide new details about pulsare, black holes and the distribution of matter in the universe. Researchers from Görlitz already have exciting plans for their investigations, among other things they want to research pulsare that act like "lighthouses" in the universe. There is also the mysterious way to collect radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations with the skao.

technological innovations

A crucial aspect behind the success of the skao is the enormous amount of data generated by the observations. The skao will produce an incredible exabyte of data per night, which requires enormous storage capacity. Here the new "Spinncloud" supercomputer comes into play at the TU Dresden, which is required to process this data. For example, it is estimated that modern radio telescopes such as the SKAO can generate up to 292 GB of data per second, which makes the use of powerful supercomputing facilities essential, such as [scisimple.com] (https://sciscisimple.com/de/articles/2025-01-supercomputer-die-ver-marzung- von-Radioteleskopdaten-Nutzen-A9rdym7) reports.

But the skao is not the only project in which the Görlitz researchers are involved. They are also part of the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA 2000), a US project with over 2000 radio antennas. To carry out the tests of new radio antennas and avoid high -frequency disorders, look for radio stool places in Lusatia.

A look into the future

The Square Kilometr Array is an international project with a story that goes back to the 1990s. The financing of this huge initiative should be up to 3 billion AUD. Seven countries were originally part of the Skao, now there are already 14 members, including Germany, which has been on board since November 2022. The anticipation for the scientific observations is growing, whereby the complete use of the array is expected after 2027 at the earliest, as Wikipedia.

The conference in Görlitz will undoubtedly be a fascinating event for the scientists who are intensively dealing with the secrets of the universe. With new technologies and awareness of the colossal tasks that lie in front of them, astronomers are ready to venture the next steps in researching the cosmos. And who knows, maybe you will discover one or the other secret that we have remained hidden so far.