Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
Next-generation international radio telescope array, with stations under construction in South Africa (SKA-Mid) and Australia (SKA-Low). Will be the world’s largest and most sensitive radio observatory once complete; supports astrophysics, cosmology, and SETI.
Relevance to UAP / astrobiology vault
-
Primary BRaTs platform. michael-a-garrett’s May 2026 BRaTs framework (src-brats-radio-technosignatures-2026-05) makes SKA (and its precursors) the central wide-field instrument for detecting broadband radio technosignatures — leakage from distributed digital infrastructure rather than narrowband beacons.
-
Provides the sensitivity and field of view needed to enable “SETI Deep Fields” — long integrations on the same patch of sky to push the Kardashev Type I leakage detection volume to ~100 pc.
-
SKA-flagged broadband candidates are intended to be followed up at sub-arcsecond resolution by VLBI to confirm planetary-scale origin via astrometric co-motion with nearby stars.
-
The July 2026 formal-publication recap of the K2-18b VLA+MeerKAT technosignature search (src-k2-18b-technosignature-scan-2026-07) cites its COSMIC/BLUSE automated-filtering pipeline as preparation for SKA-era data volumes.