Moroccan university Al Akhawayn and Carnegie Mellon of Pittsburgh, PA are planning to build a cylindrical radio telescope of 2000 m2, whose first phase will require a budget of $ 20 million. The telescope will be installed in the Eastern Moroccan province of Figuig. It will map the sky ten times faster than any other telescope on Earth.
Moroccan, Canadian, Australian and French Researchers are affiliated with this project. It will address one of the most topical issues of modern science; "What constitutes the universe."
The unprecedented volume of new data from the telescope will allow a search of the sky for new exotic objects like rapidly spinning stars, as well as stars that explode in a flash of radio waves.
Astronomers and physicists from around the world will use the Morocco data. Morocco can carry out this program because the geography of the country allows the potential to provide radio-quiet sites.
The Atlas Mountains offer a natural shield, isolating the interior desert areas from the radio noise of the cities. Morocco offers these quiet sites but also has the technology infrastructure to support construction and operation of the telescope.
Thanks to its central positioning, and its accessibility for astronomers from Europe and North America, Morocco offers an important technological infrastructure to back the construction and the running of the telescope.
1 comment:
Il était temps d'en avoir un ... Enfin !!
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