High-tech parts for telescope on way to S. Africa

Four dishes to be delivered for world's largest astronomy observation network

The first middle-frequency dishes of the Square Kilometer Array radio telescope, the world's biggest astronomy observation network and an international mega-science project, have begun to be transported to their destination in South Africa.

At a ceremony on Wednesday morning in a northwestern suburb of Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, experts announced that the first batch of four Square Kilometer Array middle-frequency dishes — SKA-Mid for short — had passed quality examination and were being transported by heavy-lift trucks to a cargo port in Tianjin, where they will be put on a ship to South Africa.

The Square Kilometer Array is an ambitious scientific endeavor involving several nations including China, the United Kingdom and Australia. It is not a single radio telescope, but a collection of various types of antennae called an array, and is spread over long distances with up to 1 square kilometer in total collecting surface area, the equivalent of 140 soccer fields.