The World's Largest Radio Telescope: The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) at Perimeter's Public Lecture on April 4

ONTARIO, Canada, March 15, 2012 /CNW/ - An international team of astronomers is planning something audacious: a revolutionary telescope so vast and distributed, it will comprise 3,000 dishes spanning the area of an entire continent. This $2 billion international mega-science project is coming in the next decade to provide new insights about the darkest corners of our universe.

On Wednesday, April 4, as part of Perimeter Institute's Public Lecture Series presented by Sun Life Financial, Dr. Lisa Harvey-Smith, Research Astronomer for the Australian Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), will show us how the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) - the world's largest and most revolutionary radio telescope - will detect distant radio signals that may help answer such questions as: Was Einstein right? How did the first stars and black holes form? Are we alone in the universe?

Dr. Lisa Harvey-Smith plays an active role at CSIRO planning for the SKA. Through this project and others, Dr. Harvey-Smith has been taking her research to astronomical levels, focusing on the birth and death of the most massive stars in our galaxy and the nature of elusive magnetic fields that thread our universe. Dr. Harvey-Smith has held research positions at the UK's Jodrell Bank Observatory, the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, the Joint Institute for VLBI in The Netherlands, and the University of Sydney, where she today is an Honorary Senior Lecturer.

Lisa Harvey-Smith's lecture, entitled "The Square Kilometre Array: Shining a flashlight into the darkest corners of the universe" will be held Wednesday, April 4 at 7:00 PM ET in Waterloo, Ontario. Tickets will be available starting Monday, March 19, 2012.

Further details can be found at www.perimeterinstitute.ca.

About Perimeter Institute

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is an independent, non-profit, scientific research organization working to advance our understanding of physical laws and develop new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter and information. Located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, Perimeter also provides a wide array of research training and educational outreach activities to nurture scientific talent and share the importance of discovery and innovation among students, teachers and the general public. In partnership with the Governments of Ontario and Canada, PI is a successful example of public-private collaboration in scientific research, training and outreach. http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca

Media inquiries

RJ Taylor
rtaylor[at]perimeterinstitute[dot]ca
519.569.7600 x5371