---
title: "Brilliant Scientists Decide to Name the World’s Largest Telescope “SKA”"
description: "Let it be known that among all the different fields of science, it was astronomers who managed to turn a record-breaking telescope into a ska joke."
date: "2022-12-07"
modified: "2022-12-07"
authors:
  - name: "Noor Al-Sibai"
    job_title: "Senior Staff Writer"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/worlds-largest-telescope-ska"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "australia"
  - "radio telescopes"
  - "south africa"
  - "the digest"
---

# Brilliant Scientists Decide to Name the World’s Largest Telescope “SKA”

![Let it be known that among all the different fields of science, it was astronomers who managed to turn a record-breaking telescope into a ska joke.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/alienskank.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Getty / Futurism\</em\>*

## Tele-Ska-Pic

Let it be known that among all the different fields of science: it was astronomers who managed to turn a record-breaking telescope into a [ska joke](<https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/how_many_ska_musicians/>).

Construction picks up this week on the world's largest telescope. Its name, like the obnoxious musical genre that spiked in popularity for [approximately 15 minutes in 1996](<https://esperantomagazine.com/2018/01/10/ska-died-in-1996/>)? SKA, which the researchers insist stands for Square Kilometer Array, and not a type of music characterized by guitar upstrokes and a horn section.

The SKA telescope will, like its musical namesake, have roots in the United Kingdom, which will host its headquarters. Otherwise, its operations will be split between South Africa and Australia, and the three-continent-spanning observatory will, as [its website notes](<https://www.skatelescope.org/challenging-einstein/>), "investigate the nature of gravity and challenge the theory of general relativity," work with pulsars, and, somehow, see if they can figure out how to "close to black holes."

## Starlight Manifesto

In its Australian portion, known [skankingly](<https://www.wikihow.com/Skank>) as the SKA-Low telescope, will as a [*Nature* report on the observatory notes](<https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04254-7>) host a stunning 131,000 antennae that look like some kind of postmodern Christmas tree.

https://twitter.com/KarenLeeWaddell/status/1599780768330715139

South Africa, meanwhile, will be home to the SKA-Mid portion of the telescope, which is not nearly as "mid" as it sounds. The country's Karoo desert — which could indeed be an album name for a [South African ska band](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI1h_Y3e8tU>) — will be home to 194 antennae that spread across a whopping 150 kilometers and will work alongside the region's existing 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope.

## The Astrobats

As the SKA site notes, this international observatory will, [much like its musical namesakes](<https://www.grunge.com/226505/the-bizarre-history-of-ska-music/>), do things nobody's ever done before — once it's completed in 2028, that is.

"The SKA will be able to indirectly measure the effects of gravity on objects in the Universe," the site explains. "It will scan for pulsars near to black holes and look at the gravitational influences of these two objects, looking for the minuscule perturbations in the fabric of space-time itself."

Jokes aside, this wonderfully-named telescope is going to be massive both in size and influence — and will undoubtedly inspire many more puns as its construction gets underway.

**More on radio telescopes:** [*Astronomers Shocked By Mysterious Radio Waves That Seem to Defy Physics*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/abell-radio-waves-defy-physics>)

## Author
At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/noorfromfuturism.bsky.social>)