SKA: The Square Kilometer Radio Telescope Array - Australia

The Square Kilometer Array (SKA), the world's most powerful radio telescope in development, may help make contact with aliens, if there is any, Australia's leading astronomer Fred Watson said on Tuesday.

The SKA is a global collaboration of 20 countries, which is aimed to provide answers to fundamental questions about origin and evolution of the Universe.

It will be able to survey the sky more than 10,000 times faster than ever before. With receiving stations extending out to distance of 3,000 km from a concentrated central core, it will continue radio astronomy's tradition of providing the highest resolution images in all astronomy.

Professor Watson, astronomer in charge at the Australian Astronomical Observatory at Coonabarabran in New South Wales, said the SKA will reveal more about the origins of the universe.

"It's about asking the big questions," The Australia Associated Press quoted Professor Watson as saying Tuesday.

Watson said, "The SKA will be by far the most sensitive radio telescope ever built. It will have the potential to reveal all kinds of things ranging from the possibility of picking up signals from aliens, if they exist."

It will look at the early universe, trying to work out how galaxies were formed, said Watson. The SKA would also investigate the "mysterious stuff" called dark matter, which permeates four- fifths of the universe, and possibly reveal how dark matter helped the formation of stars.

The Murchison region in the Western Australia outback is vying with a site in South Africa for the SKA, with a group of international scientists expected to make a final decision on the site for the SKA in 2012.

Some clues as to the location may be revealed following the final international SKA forum meeting in Banff, Canada held on July 3-8.

Construction of the SKA is scheduled to begin in 2016 for initial observations by 2019 and full operation by 2024.