South Africa is bidding against Australia to host the world’s largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array.

Botswana, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique and Namibia are South Africa’s likely partners to host remote stations of the SKA.

The outcome of the SKA bid would be announced in 2011.

The SKA is a 1 billion Euro international project to create a receiving surface of one square kilometre, many larger than the biggest receiving surface now in existence. 

If South Africa’s bid to host the SKA telescope is successful, Southern Africa would be receiving a major boost in radio astronomy research, more student training and infrastructure layout.

This would provide a tremendous boost to the country’s development of very high-level skills and strengthen its ability to compete effectively in the global knowledge economy.

Thus, South Africa would become one of the major centres in the world for information technology, fundamental physics, astronomy and high-tech engineering and would attract the best scientists and engineers in the world.

The central location of the SKA would be in the Northern Cape, with further dishes located in remote stations hosted by African partner countries.