More than two hundred jobs could be coming to the region following the announcement that Jodrell Bank will be the new home for an international science organisation.
The Square kilometre array (SKA), the world’s biggest radio telescope, will be based at the University of Manchester’s Cheshire observatory.
SKA will deploy huge fields of antennas across Africa and Australia to sweep the sky for answers to the major outstanding questions in astronomy including how the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang, how galaxies have evolved since then, the nature of gravity, and the search for life beyond Earth.
Construction of the telescope, to be sited in South Africa and Australia, will begin in 2018 and the SKA is planned to be operational for at least 50 years.
“Locating the headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array, the world’s largest radio telescope, at Jodrell Bank builds on The University of Manchester’s long legacy of world leading radio astronomy as well as the UK’s leading activities in data intensive science,” said Professor Colin Bailey, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester. “More than 50 SKA staff are already at Jodrell Bank in a purpose-built building and we will now further develop the University’s site to meet the needs of this transformational project.”
Professor Stephen Watts, Head of the School of Physics & Astronomy at The University of Manchester, said: “This is great news for Jodrell Bank. Not only will it mean cutting edge science will continue to be carried out at the site for the foreseeable future but it will also help inspire the thousands of children who visit here every year from schools across the country. It is a great honour to be chosen as the headquarters of the largest telescope ever built.”
