A new facility being built in Australia could possibly detect alien life.
The construction work on the world's largest radio telescope began on Monday.
The Square Kilometre Array will be able to capture the entire observable universe in unprecedented detail, with the more than 130,000 Christmas tree-shaped antennas providing astronomer and scientists with a raft of valuable deep-space data that couldunlock some of the secrets
The observable universe will be scanned for low-range radio frequencies between 50 MHz and 350 MHz, and will be able to map what it sees 135 times faster than existing telescopes.
The SKA Organization says on its website that it represents a huge leap forward in both engineering and research and development.
The SKA will bring together a lot of the world's finest scientists, engineers, and policymakers to bring the project to fruition.
The facility's unique configuration will give those using it "unrivaled scope in observations, largely exceeding the image resolution quality of the Hubble Space Telescope"
Around 200 space-facing dishes will be used in the South Africa project.
Thirty years have passed since the international effort to build the world's largest radio telescope began. It will take about six years to build the facility, with some of the work involving land agreements with local aboriginal communities.
It will be possible for scientists and astronomer to start getting data from the SKA before the building work is done.
The science goals are as vast as the telescope itself, from searching for planets and signs of alien life, to mapping out the Cosmic web of dark.
The biggest question of all is whether or not we are alone in the universe, and the SKA telescopes will be sensitive enough to detect an airport radar on a planet around a star tens of light years away.
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