I Went From Stonehenge to the SKA: 5,000 Years of Cosmic Curiosity In 45 minutes

[Music] at this magnificent area. We don't really know what it's about. Where did it come from? Who built it? Why did they build it? Nobody knows. It looks like it could be Easter Island. It could be something else. Heat. Heat. [Music] So we go over here. >> So this whole area it's built in the Paleolithic, the Neolithic area 5,000 years ago. Imagine being here 5,000 years ago. How do they build it? How do they put it up? How is it possible? Maybe it was NASA. It could have been NASA that did it. So, Stonehenge, what is it? Where does it come from? Did the Egyptians build it 5,000 years ago? I mean, how could this possibly have been done? Let's walk around it. Let's get a tour of all different angles of it. Beautiful time of day. Stonehenge, that silent city of stone on the Salisbury plane in England. We see these magnificent structures and we're instantly struck by a question that has echoed through the millennia. How did this possibly come to be? But before we get to the how, let's just appreciate the what. We're talking about stones that weigh as much as a fully grown humpac whale. The giant stones known as Sarsen stones were quarried from about 20 m away. They're the heavyweights. But the real headscratcher, the blue stones. These smaller 5-tonon stones came all the way from the Presley Hills in Wales. That's a journey of over 140 miles. Think about that. These ancient builders didn't have Amazon Prime. They had grit, ingenuity, and we have to assume a lot of very sore backs. It's the ultimate prehistoric DIY project. And they didn't even have YouTube documentaries and tutorials like this one. So, how did they do it? The truth is, no one knows for sure. It's one of history's greatest unsolved mysteries, right up there, along with the pyramids and the Easter Island heads. But that doesn't stop us from making some very educated guesses with the help of modern science and a bit of logic. Forget alien interventions. The real answer lies in human genius. The leading theory suggests a large combination of brute force and brilliant engineering. Were they rolling these giant behemoths on logs, hoisting them with massive A-frames and rope? Maybe they built enormous earthn ramps. There are some huge dunes and berms nearby that some say are even more impressive than the stone structures themselves. Imagine trying to assemble the world's heaviest flatp pack furniture from IKEA, but your instructions are 5,000 years old and written in well, nothing at all. The builders even carved woodworking joints, mortise and tenon, into the stone. They were shaping the very bones of the earth with the precision of master carpenters. Bob Villa, take a back seat. It's a testament to the idea that with enough brain power, you can move mountains or at least engineer parts of them. Now, it's easy to get fixated on Stonehenge itself, but if you zoom out, you'll find it wasn't built in isolation. It was the spectacular centerpiece of a much larger sacred complex. The ancient motto seems to have been the same as your realtor today. Location, location, location. You have Abury, a stone circle so vast it contains an entire village. You have Woodhenge and Durington Walls where the builders likely lived, feasted, and celebrated and probably put some Dones medicated back patches on their backs. At least I hope they did. Then there's Silbury Hill, a man-made mountain of chalk, the purpose of which is still a mystery to this day. This wasn't just a monument. It was a thriving landscape, a Neolithic metropolitan area buzzing with activity for over a thousand years. It tells us that the people who built Stonehenge weren't just building a structure, they were shaping a whole world. And why would someone want to shape the ancient world? Well, perhaps it was really a time piece to help them find their place within the cosmos. This is where Stonehenge truly transcends from an impressive structure to a work of sheer genius. The entire monument is a celestial calendar precisely aligned with the movements of the sun. On the summer solstice, the sun rises directly over the heelstone, flooding the central axis with light. On the winter solstice, it sets perfectly between the tallest chilon. It's a cosmic clock, a way to mark the passage of time, the changing of the seasons, important events, harvests, and perhaps even to predict eclipses. These ancient astronomers without telescopes or computers or even Zoom meetings and Slack messages understood the rhythms of the universe and encoded them in stone. They weren't just watching the stars, they were in a dialogue with them. And that conversation is one we're still trying to decipher. [Music] You might think that after 5,000 years, Stonehenge would have given up all its secrets. you'd be wrong. The story is still being written. Today, we're applying the full power of 21st century science to this ancient wonder. Ground penetrating radar reveals hidden structures beneath our feet. Geochemical analyses are rewriting the story of where the stones come from. We've only just recently confirmed that the altar stone is from Scotland just this past year. Who knows what new technologies like muontomography might bring to this ancient altar of stone? Every new discovery, every new technique brings us one step closer to understanding not just how they built it, but why. Stone Edge reminds us that there are still great mysteries waiting to be solved, written in the language of stone, time, and starlight. The universe is whispering its secrets and all we have to do is listen and maybe marvel at their ingenuity and the creation they made. Our journey continues a simple train ride just a couple hours from one part of England to another. Roughly the same distance from the stone quarrying sites of Scotland and Wales to Stonehenge itself. The real distance we're about to travel isn't ordinary at all. And it's not to be measured in miles, but in millennia. No, the train is a time machine, too. With every click of the rails, we're h hurtling forward through time. 5,000 years of human history. A year, every click. We're leaping past the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the rise and fall of empires, the Renaissance, the industrial revolution, the information age, the space age, all of it. We're trading in the stone age for the space age. We have arrived at Jadre Bank. Here we no longer track the sun across the sky with stones. We listen for the whispers of cosmic creation itself. We've gone from charting our nearest star to capturing the echoes of the Big Bang. from seeing the light to hearing in the darkness. The tools have changed, but the quest has not. Astronomers, both modern and ancient, have the same exact curiosity. The same curiosity that inspired our ancestors to raise those stones back at Stonehenge now drives us to build these colossal dishes and ultra cold telescope components. The desire to look up, to ask what's out there and what's our place in it all. That's the timeless engine of human discovery. >> All right, here we are. The famous professor Luchio Piterella, former dire was a director. >> Yeah, I have been director for a brief period. >> Now we're here at the level. It's Levelvel or Lowel. >> Levelvel telescope. After going to Stonehish, you see come to a very different type of observatory. much more modern. Still pretty pretty in sync with mankind's oldest desires. Here we have some more scientists here. >> Well, for example, the CIA took it over. >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. >> Wasn't it used on the Apollo missions? >> Because No, it was used to track the Sputnik. >> Ah, that's right. It was track. >> So, that was the only the only >> This one antenna. Yeah. The only antenna that could get the signal from the Sputnik. >> So, they work with the CIA. Well, that's what I've been told. >> That's the official. >> This was built 70 years ago. About 70 years ago. >> Years. Wow. How is it diameter? >> So is 76 m diameter. So a football pitch. It's very very impressive. I mean the the structure is still sound. >> Can it rotate? Do they still use it for anything or is it just a display? >> No. No. This is working. It work. Most of the research is in pulsar. Oh yeah. >> And they're trying to detect the gravitational waves. >> Ah, from the pulsar timing. I know. We have one of these. Lucha is going to build this one. >> You can see a a big bearing there. >> Yeah. >> At the elevation bearing is part of a U ship. The cannon, you know. >> Oh, a turret. >> Yeah, a turret of the cannon. >> Wow. How long did it take to build here? Let me let me >> Oh, it was uh >> the probably is is written here. It was uh not not long. I mean was the founder and >> so what he did after the war he was one of the other people that actually worked on the radar. So he had a lot of equipment and he said what do I do with this equipment and so he said okay let's build a radio telescope. So they first tracked spot neck to see if it was the was a weapon basically, right? It was just a radio trans. >> They did. >> I met the man. I I had Oh, he was a remarkable man. Remarkable >> came somebody. >> Huh? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. The uh the uh elevation uh the elevation turret. I mean the bearing of the elevation >> battleship. Yeah. >> Yeah. So it could point 360 180 can flip over. Does it go all the way over or just up to 90°? >> No, no, it does the full Well, you can see the the the thing goes full. >> Is that a communications app? >> So, no, this this one is actually tracking C >> and then it was used was it used during seem to pulse especially crab pulse in the crab. >> So, we use that TA for polarization for the Simon's observatory. >> I know >> that's our calibrate one of our calibration sources. >> So, uh 7 is the M2 telescope. >> Okay. E was the first one. It's completely automatic and this s of the emerlin you know. >> Now tell me about SKA. What is SK? >> Uh kome array. SKA stands for square kilometer array is essentially a telescope was aim is to get a one square kilometer covering area obviously with many many dishes. Oh, he's moving. No, it might be. >> That's my tober. >> No, I think they're preventing to move. >> Oh, see in there. >> Uh, not I have been up to there. Not inside the >> inside. >> Yeah, inside is only for uh the technical the one that service management. Yeah. >> Although I I wanted to, brother. >> Yeah, I'm sure >> I wanted really. So, >> so you can see actually the access to the to the inside of the of the you see the you see some steps there. You see? >> Yeah, that's the and then it goes into a door. Then you can access the >> go all the way up here. I mean there's a catwalk it looks like from sun. >> That's a interesting walk to do. >> Yeah, I'm sure in the winter at night >> with wind and Yeah, >> it's a nice day. >> So anyway, it's it's a remarkable it's a remarkable dish. >> They have machine shops here. Are they? >> Yeah, there is a machine show. Now you know all the scientists are in Manchester here. Just the technical stuff running the the telescope. >> Was it always affiliated with Manchester? >> Yes. >> Zar Lel was a researcher. >> Well, it's u >> I don't know actually why it was given to the University of Manchester, but I think part of the funding certainly now, you know, Manchester is is a bribe paying paying for Now, there's another telescope here. That's a 7 meter diameter telescope, a little bit bigger than the Simon's Observatory telescope. Then there's a big telescope over there. And they're looking, that telescope just looks at a calibration source called the Crab Nebula or Taurus A. It's a polarized supernova remnant discovered in the year 1054 >> in a Milky White. In the center of it all is the Crab's pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star. The pulsar has an incredibly strong magnetic field and rotates very fast. It produces a wind of energetic particles that we call a pulsar wind nebula. These thin bright lines trace the shape of the magnetic field around the pulsar >> that was actually used for calibration for the Simon's array in the Simon's observatory. Yeah, the pulsar has a pulsar at the center of it and it can detect it really easily. Now, when the first pulsars were discovered by my past guest, Joselyn Bell Bernell, she thought that she had been seeing alien communication because the pulses are so regular. They come off salt. >> No, it was a tongue and cheek nickname that I gave these things. We needed some sort of short name. >> You can't talk about, you know, that funny source we keep seeing at 1919 plus 23. >> Yeah, indeed. So, um I I was, you know, ruminating, you know, last night as I was looking over your books and your work, and there's a wonderful, uh short documentary about you, uh in the New York Times from earlier this year. I will link to that in the video and and text description. But I was thinking you really did do something quite remarkable perhaps for the first time in human history which is that you used your brain to discover something not just your eyes through a telescope because you made these first discovery uh of these objects which we call pulsars to this very day. Um and I was thinking about all the serendipitous things that had to come about for that to happen. The right wavelength, the right time, the right instrument. Um, and I wonder if you can tell me, are you as fascinated by pulsars now as you were when you discovered them, you know, 54 years ago? >> Uh, just to backtrack slightly, I think we don't want to imply that nobody else has a brain. >> That's true. that they thought it was actually an alien communication network that was coming in from space and that they couldn't detect they were actually being so they called the sources little green men LGM today they still look for aliens but they haven't seen any yet [Music] [Music] So the whole telescope tilts on its axis like this in the elevation and then rotates on this huge rail track in azimuth. It's kind of about twice or three times the distance of Stonehenge. They're both used for astronomical purposes. We know more about this one, but it seems to be in even worse condition than the Stonehenge. So this huge rail system goes back and forth and then it rotates on this other track system here. [Music] So this track system works perfectly. We're going to go get a tour of the inside. All the computing takes place inside. They use massive computers to connect the telescope. And so what's going on with the Simon's Observatory? What's being built here? Explain what's being built here. Oh, we have two subs. The embed radio frequencies that's 150 GHz is 90 GHz. That's where the CB and 50. So, we went for the peak around the peak of the CNB. >> And they're using kid detectors >> instead of TS using kids detectors. >> Very different than this, right? Very different than that. What kind of detectors were inside of this? Were they on radios? >> Radio. >> What frequencies did it operate at? usually uh from one to uh 5 GHz 1 to 5 GHz. It's very low frequency, but that's where the water line is 14. That's when all stars >> uh detected all stars were but now the actual array that she the pulsar detection she used a bunch of linear antennas, right? Or in a field somewhere, right? >> Other dishes like this smaller, but no, this way. This way. And so >> actually the e-arning uh will be described by Simon Garington. So we can uh he will give you the proper he'll >> give us a nice >> Yeah. The proper the proper data. >> Perfect. Now, we've come and explored a lot at Jawadro Bank, but it still has many more secrets, including some of the most incredible scientific components and contributions to the Simons Observatory that will enable us to achieve a wide range of science goals. We're going to see soon where this research takes place, but before we do, we want to take a deeper look in some of the most fascinating research conducted anywhere on Earth. And it's all taking place at Jadro Bank. The United Kingdom received funding at an astonishing amount of over 20 million Great British pounds and that's going to be put to great use to enhance and upgrade the Simon's Observatory what is known as the updated Simon's observatory will have three SATs funded by the Simons Foundation. It was originally called SOAL. Then there will have two additional SATs, small aperture telescopes looking for the primordial B mode polarization due to gravitational weights from inflation if inflation took place. Two of them are funded by the United Kingdom built with different technology including kids kinetic inductance device detectors. Lastly, our colleagues in Japan are building a third SAT which will operate at low frequencies to help guard against foreground contamination. This is funded entirely within Japan. So we've got funding from three different continents to enable incredible scientific return. So the SAT started observing in late 2023 and we'll continue going through at least 2028 at which time we'll switch over to the full contingent of six sats plus the 30,000 or more detectors in the Simons Observatory Large Aperture Telescope which large as it is is much smaller than the level telescope shown here. We're the SKA which is the largest radio telescope of Maine. They have different printouts as much signal versus comment. We need to go. Wow. So this is the control room. Well, that is authentic. That's authentic when it's right. >> This is Peter Timmy, past guest on the podcast. He's backlit hor this direction. and we're ready for All right. So, I remember your appearance on the podcast, too. Fan favorite guest Father's Day episode. I think it was 2021. >> You, you know, it's been a while since you've been in Wisconsin and uh and spent your own days um at the observatory and through the cold winter and so forth. Um but we're yeah, we we passed into a new phase before the bugs have come. At first glance, this could be a plantation of Christmas trees in the Australian outback. But you're looking at what some are calling one of humanity's biggest ever scientific endeavors. This is an artist's impression of what's known as the SKA Low Telescope currently being built in Western Australia. It's one of two critical components that when completed will together form the SKA Observatory or SKAO. The second part is the SKA mid telescope now under construction in South Africa. SKAO will consist of more than 130,000 antennas and almost 200 dishes across the two continents. That will make it the largest radio observatory in the world, promising to answer some of our biggest questions about the universe. ANU's Professor Naomi Mccclure Griffiths is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science who discovered a spiral arm of a Milky Way and is chair of SKAO's science and engineering advisory committee. She says SKAO will enable science to take a giant leap forward. >> It's the chance to be able to see the very first stars in the universe and when those turned on and then everything from the very beginning to us here and looking at how planets form in our own galaxy. >> For that to happen, radio telescopes must be located a long way from other humanmade transmissions such as TV, radio, and mobile phone signals which can interfere with the relatively weak radio waves coming from space. That makes this site on Waji country ideal. It's already home to precursor telescopes like this one. The site itself is called in Yarim Manana Bundra, the CSRO Merchesen Radio Astronomy Observatory, which translates to sharing sky and stars. The traditional owners agreed to host the science facilities on their land as part of a broader agreement that will ensure educational, social, and economic benefits for community and the benefits to society as a whole can't be overstated. Science Minister Ed Husk says SKAO's cuttingedge technology will expose Australian businesses to new skills and capabilities. We will see those changes flow on for generations to come. SKAO will also enhance Australia's growing space industry with scientists from around the world making regular use of the observatory. Some will even be on the lookout for intelligent extraterrestrial life. If an alien species were out there trying to reach out and say hello by the time that radio signal got to Earth, it would have been so weak we wouldn't be able to detect it, says SKA LO telescope director Dr. Sarah Pierce. But that changes with SKAO. The observatory will start producing science before the end of the decade. >> So yeah, let's take a look. >> Now we're about to hear something fascinating. The SKA is one of the most impressive and ambitious projects that humanity has ever devised, let alone in astronomy. >> Okay. Yeah, we're all here. >> And welcome to to the observatory. Uh this is the Harvey Observatory. This is the control room for both the big L telescope 1050 foot and a whole network of telescopes that we operate across the country. Uh, we draw remotely but but remotely operated but you can do it. You might need to be on clicks. You've had a look at the telescope. I'm outside already. I guess you been up there. Okay. So, right now we're doing some painting on the telescope. You need to do some painting every year to try and keep it even condition. >> It's been here since 1957. So, remarkably fast project. So the the telescope was conceived in 1950. So we had the the memo of the meeting of the Royal Ast Royal Astron society where they said okay let's let's go ahead with this project in some form in February by by October November they had the whole steel work design >> and that was lucky because that was when Sputnik was launched right. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Well this is 1950. >> Oh 1950 I think. So 1970. >> Uhhuh. >> So so they had the whole design. So, so from sort of let's go to whole design was was 6 months. They they started digging in spring 1952 and by 1957 it was complete. So so remarkably fast. What was amazing was also they changed the design of the telescope while they were building it. The original design didn't look like this. It was designed for much longer wavelengths. So 8 m wavelength with very coarse sort of 4 in mesh the surface just just a single girder between two towers like a grease. It's built by a bridge designer. So it's just a single sort of beam between two towers and then radial ribs to support a mesh surface. But but after they built the foundations and started to build the towers they completely changed the design. Realized they wanted to go to higher frequencies. They wanted to do 21 cm. So let him one centimeters stroke through Nesta and also had been the uh the minister of defense said could you make it work for a missile track and they made that suggestion said okay that we need to make it much better performance agree is much better surfaces and then stepped back said okay you have some of our inclans now so so the telescope decay completely changed it design and this so this is you know just guys with drawing tables and slides, redesigning that um in a matter of months with the change of design. Um but stuck to the schedule eventually and just and and then it ended up cost twice as four times the cost compared to issue. So it was on schedule as a factor of four or five under budget which was a financial crisis at a time as you say what saved it was put me. >> Yeah. So just you know in the month that they finished it the first satellite was launched and this is one of the first thing I did track the satellite not the satellite for rock. So they got a late body 36 MHz and 20 MHz radar rocks and they got an echo on the rock body which was 3 orbit separately from this sat. So it certainly is built entirely for radio. >> Yeah. but had their second role in some space tracking activities in the sort of >> was it used at all during the Apollo like communic as a communication link or anything else? So, so actually this so during the Apollo landing the small telescope there a small telescope on the roof tracked the Orlando and we have the Doppler signal as you see Armstrong taking the manual control and as a doppus as it begins wiggly do but at the same time so there's a Soviet mission landing on the moon at the same time >> right so Luna 15 was a Soviet sample return mission that landed on crashed it crashed in surveys. >> Yeah. >> While they were while Armstrong were on the surface of moon. So we have so so we've got the recordings of them tracking that. So this was tracking the uh the Soviet um crashing into the moon surface and so we have them you know and they realized straight away that we crashed. It hadn't been successful for which they could clear a sound forward. So yeah, so did that and that. So that was 69. You know, earlier in the 60s it we've intercepted um signals from all the Soviet missions and space missions um which it was in their interest for us to do that. So it was in the Soviet interest to have a sort of independent verification, right? What they're doing. Nowadays, there's a whole cohort of people online that don't believe the moon Apollo moon landing happened, but it's actually the Soviets that confirm that the Americans did sexism in the US. >> Yeah, in the US. >> It's good. Okay. The just crop circles, right? That's the only thing. >> So, so that so that was, you know, a small part of his time. It was built entirely of science and continues to be used in science and still a front rank instrument. Most already does pulsar tiny. So, it's, you know, one of the part of these pulsar tining arrays. Yeah. where we're getting whole networks of pots for for long shade residuals over do you know that work is nearing a detection it's not a detection yet but the combination res >> was of when this was built where there's a knife smaller telescopes >> near here that have already uh established the site so so yeah so so the site is established right after the war. So, and the day was was May 1945. By July, Lul was here doing experiments. He was trying to get radar echoes from cosmic ray from the stairs charge pass at trying to get a radar echo from that. He wanted he brought some equipment here. There was no electricity. No, no houses have entered the garage. His garage where we used to get our cars serviced just over the road. They added a generator. So he hooked up his equipment to that generator app go uh and then late and then that led to by December they came and set things up on this site probably so they both teners on a search and then they built this 220 but now it doesn't and test radioact National radio which I'm from in the galaxy we we got to about seven >> seven and yeah so I've done certainly I've done even done a radar stuff as well and then then then network of other telescopes are built ambitions for much bigger telesc probably some will be 500 ft. So five kilometers across that would be so you will sit there along this road and on the right you will see the so when those >> just the cafeteria perfect >> he had plans for that that was so so this was the mark one the mark 2 is that elliptic over there and the mark 3 was this all these written down in 1961 uh mark 3 was like a macano version of the mark thank you very much for very well initially thought having that on a re rail track to do variable baseline interrometry and then build about sites in Wales that that was that they did a massive spend a lot of money on the feasibility of that had the full design got a model of the design here um it was that the designer for that same designer ascology to make a you know a parabola that deforms but says parabola an idea for f is very tren not all other telescopes now. So, who's trying to build it as a rigid structure and it was just getting heavier and heavier and then having to be more rigid and just getting bigger and bigger and it became very expensive. So it went and they had uh when they put in the final proposal for that they had sort of you know this if you don't fund this then over envelope B and envelope B was the plans for a network of telescope which became a network of you know sort of long baseline. So the same guys were who were building and using this in the 19 in 19 the late 1950s developed long baseline in front. So they were they were taking transportable antennas but wait to the to the next field to the next village across the country connected back here with a radio. So not not constrained by a cable connected in front and a radioed interometer. Uh so you know they do 1 km 4 km 10 km 100 km. So they so even by uh late 1950s early the 60s they have so previ so real time connected via radio only but 100 km basically against e and that and with that they discovered compact sources which weren't known as you know and that those positions were passed to the calte group using palar to search for whatever they were yeah and that became quas these it was that those long baseline experiments sending the the the latest results on the compact options to cow set could led to the story. We have a time constraint for the SKA. So sorry to interrupt like I'll show the history but say yeah know we're you know I mean e- is the leading instrument for high resolution astronomy. >> Can we get an explanation of it or are they going to use it out can we get uh can we take a look over there with us in lord yet? Quick explanation that you m >> not operating at the moment because we're doing some maintenance as we are on your time. So this is this is 200 km of separation of antennas can hold that across across the UK. So that gives us 50 milliac resolution. So similar resolution to sorry how many carc so there's five other telescopes across the UK plus two telescopes here. So seven telescopes all together. So yeah, that gives us a resolution of 50 100 millconds. Same sort of resolution as the HST or or web uh but a radio wavelength. And that's a that's a UK facility, international facility used by hundreds of scientists in the UK and around the world for everything from formation of planets, formation and evolution of stars, for evolution of galaxies, uh even weak lensing for dark matter dark. It's the longest baseline between the >> 220 km at the moment. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And that's up north or south though. >> That's that's from uh actually from from Cambridge is the most distant one to one in Shot which is is a bit bit south and to the to the west >> and two of those are offline or the well we're doing maintenance at various telescopes at the moment because it's summer. We do we do some so at the moment we're doing some painting of uh so so these ones so knock in and um mate some sea pikmia they're similar to the VA dishes so they're uh 25 m 80 ft 85 ft dishes Cambridge is a 32 mph and this is tracking sources this is the planetarium software here >> first yeah just so we can see where we're pointing at the moment cuz we're just we're just doing some maintenance But yeah, it's so no staff at any of those sites uh all remotely operated from here and then it we have our own optical fiber network dial fiber network connecting those to a correlator here. So as much bandwidth as we want from those telescopes and then correlated in real time using a hardware correlator uh built in. It's analog and not digital or digital. >> No, no, it's digitized at the telescope and then sent by fiber. Yeah, but at the moment, well, we're just upgrading it to 100 GB network, but at the moment that's a sort of proprietary format correlation down to the famously sunny skies. Well, South Manchester, >> we we have had a very nice summer relatively recently. So, yes, a little bit clearer during our visit. Yeah, so far Anyway, hi, my name's uh Keith Graange. So, I'll take you over to the SK headquarters there. But just on the way, I'll point out this uh radio telescope here. And just actually really for comparison because this is a a 12.8 m diameter telescope. So, just bear that in mind when I tell you about what's uh the SK is going to be. So the the SKA is a a um a new radio telescope that's being built at the moment and um it it has a slogan of um three sites, two telescopes, one observatory. So um this is one of the sites, the the headquarters here. And then we've got um two telescopes actually being constructed at the moment in uh one in South Africa, one in Australia. Um, and uh, they're actually rather different telescopes. I'll show you um, uh, shortly hopefully. Um, well, the the two different types of technologies. There we go. Right. So, um, welcome to SKA headquarters. Um, so the the the SKA is going to be an inferrometer basically much the same as uh much the same as Simon's just been telling you about uh E- Merlin and it's going to be made up of uh telescopes like this one here except that those are going to be 15 m diameter. Uh so by comparison just a little bit bigger than the one you just saw out there. The thing is though, there's going to be 197 of these um scattered around in uh the Karu desert in uh in South Africa. And so the maximum baseline sort of maximum distance between any of those antennas is going to be 150 km. And as Simon told you, that's what actually gives you the uh the angular resolution, the resolving power to be able to actually uh pick out really fine detail in uh uh astrophysical sources. Um also, if you have a a look at this thing, you can see it's made up of um panels of which this is an example here. So, if you get yourself, I don't know, 80 or so of these panels and stick them together, then you will actually may uh allow yourself to build one of those um SK dishes. >> So, these triangular panels are basically shown in miniature there. Almost as big as Peter. >> Yeah. So I think that this was taken off to we recently had a a summer science exhibition down in London where people were invited to go and sign the uh the thing which is why it's quite so colorful and I think this is also part of their display uh where you can actually find out um wonderful uh uh facts about what the epoch of reonization is and things like that. So this is uh that's the telescope that's going to go down to South Africa. In Australia, we're going to have a rather different type of telescope u which is made up of this rather less pre-possessing type of antenna like this. This is a log periodic antenna. Okay. Um but the amazing thing about this is that in Australia we're going to have 131,000 of these. So that's just a mindbogling thing. Um the the the simulations of what this will look like are quite incredible. And now they've actually got they they're best part of 8,000 of these things already deployed. They in the outback. Yes. Um it's in a really deserted part of Australia um just um just to the north of um Perth. And in fact um the the area that they've got um is has a a longest baseline about 70 km or so and it's so deserted that the the population in that area is about 21. Okay. So it's the size of the Netherlands with a population of 21. So uh we really trying to get away from human habitation to try and um get as little radio frequency interference as possible. Um, and the difference between these two telescopes is this one's going to be looking at low frequencies, so long wavelengths. So, it's going to go from 50 mehz all the way up to 350 MHz >> for realization. >> Exactly. Yes. Whereas the those rather more traditional kind of dish telescopes of which we have 197, those are going to go from 350 MHz up to 15.5 GHz. And so actually we span quite a huge uh range of frequencies which mean that there's a gigantic amount of science that you can do which um just to to illustrate that um here's here's um the SKA science case anybody want to have feel any feel the weight so this is 135 chapters worth of scan um that was come up with back in uh yeah it's quite quite if you're ever looking for a Christmas present for someone. Um there you go. And um it it really does the thing about the SK is it has really does have a really broad um science uh remit. And so there's plenty of these kind of panels here uh showing the different science working groups of the SKA and the type of work they're going to have going on. Um the other thing and because I'm mindful of the fact that I've only got 3 minutes left. Um just if you come this way um I always feel as though uh although it's not actually anything to do with the science but it's quite quite nice to see as long as they're not using it. We should have a a quick peek into the council chamber. >> The council chamber. >> Okay. Come on in. So um >> wow. >> This this is the for the observatory. >> This is what you need. I mean it always feels to me as though this is either the UN or or you should have Stablo Blowfelt sitting here with a white cat or you guess $1 million or will unleash the labor. Exactly. And uh the other thing to say is uh this is quite an international experiment. Um here's the the flags of all the um yes you you can now go and stand beside your favorite flag. Um so this is this is actually used uh regularly for local internal meetings. It's used for council meetings. Uh we also actually get to as part of the University of Manchester to be able to borrow this every now and again. So for Yeah. So for example, the the symposium that happens uh often happens here. So that's a >> meeting >> uh well for a group meeting it might be a little bit over over intimidating but uh it's a it's a night nice kind of thing to have available. Um and it it is a um I really love working here because if you're in the middle of a really tedious Zoom meeting, you can just look out the window and you get a bit of inspiration for seeing the the lovely telescope out there. So, um, it's a it's a very nice site to work at. >> From stone circles to great steel dishes, the tools have evolved, but the fundamental quest remains the same. We want to get to know our universe and how we fit into it. Today, we've taken a journey from the Stone Age to the space age to the SKA age. We've mapped the hidden architecture of the solar system, gone beyond it to the local cosmos, looking at pulsars, the beating heartbeats from dead stars. But the quest will not end until we get back to the very first stars to ever form. That will come online soon with the square kilometer array. Soon we will be listening to the first sounds of the early cosmos's earliest structures to form. The early cosmos remains a mystery shrouded in what's called the dark ages, but they won't remain dark for much longer. Stay tuned next time for another fascinating journey into the impossible with me, Brian Keading, the Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego as we explore the cosmos. bringing with it our insatiable curiosity. Click here for a video that I know you're going to love. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe.