China adds cutting-edge tech to global SKA telescope network

China has become the first non-European country to successfully deploy and integrate the services necessary to establish a node for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Observatory in its initial phase, marking a significant milestone in international astronomical collaboration.

The Chinese node, built by the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, passed the integration test organized by SKA Observatory headquarters, joining Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom in the global network, China Science Daily reported on Monday.

The SKA Observatory is a next-generation giant radio telescope array that is under construction. Once completed, it will be the world's largest radio telescope array to explore the universe's origins and evolution.

Philip Diamond, SKA Director-General, hailed the progress as an important milestone in China's SKA development.

The Chinese node employs an innovative cloud-native architecture, boosting resource utilization by more than 35 percent compared to traditional computing models, while enabling intercontinental data transmission capabilities.

The SKA project is poised to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, with the potential to yield evidence on dark matter, dark energy and gravitational waves. ■