In its Summer Solstice update to members, the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA) provided an update on the Square Kilometre Array Observatory.

The science update follows the announcement in early June that Canada was officially joining the Square Kilometre Array Observatory as a member.

The Square Kilometre Array Observatory consists of two radio telescopes at radio-quiet sites in South Africa and Australia.

CASCA Science Update

With the investment Canada will get about “6% use-share that will provide the community with significant access to SKA observing time and computing resources.”

CASCA says that the major anticipated science milestones include:

• Science Verification data from scientifically competitive arrays (Array Assembly 2 = AA2) in late 2027;
• Shared-risk Principal Investigator (PI) observations with the AA* staged-delivery facilities in late 2028; and
• The start of large Key Science observing Programs (KSPs) in 2030.

CASCA reports that a new advisory committee on the SKA has been created with participation all the organizations participating in Canada.

With Canada’s membership CASCA reports that “the Canadian SKA Scientists program continues to be developed, with a first call for applications expected in Fall 2024. In the steady state, this new, permanent program will support a total of 8 –10 NRC-funded SKA Scientists spread across Canadian universities.”

You can read the full update on the CASCA website.