To help young scientists get a handle on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), SKA South Africa is backing a project for pupils to record information from aliens in outer space. Or at least hypothetical aliens.
To help young scientists get a handle on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), SKA South Africa is backing a project for pupils to record information from aliens in outer space. Or at least hypothetical aliens.
SKA South Africa, the South African Astronomical Observatory the University of Southampton, and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Office of Astronomy for Development have combined to offer a fun project called The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) from the 14-18 July this year.
This challenge will last for a week and pupils are invited to compete in school teams.
It involves a radio telescope which will detect information from ‘alien’ sources around the world. These sources will release signals through a webpage and pupils will interpret information about mathematics, chemistry, biology, physics, and the astronomical position of the aliens' world.
SKA launched its first antenna (MeerKAT) and high-tech data centre on 27 March this year. The centre is comprised of 64 MeerKAT antennae that make up South Africa's new radio telescope.
Visit www.soton.ac.uk/~seti for more information about the competition.
