It is also leading the African effort to host what is widely described as potentially the world’s largest scientific instrument, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope. The SKA, whose massive collection of dishes would stretch across nine African countries, is a next-generation telescope that will examine gas clouds in the early universe at 100 times the power of the most powerful existing radio telescope, the Very Large Array in New Mexico.
在政府领导下，南非还力争修建被普遍认定为世界最大科学仪器的平方公里天线阵（SKA）射电望远镜。平方公里天线阵所属的碟形天线遍布非洲9个国家，是观察能力超过现有射电望远镜百倍的研究早期宇宙气云结构的新一代望远镜系统。