The decision came Friday evening to the relief of Australian officials, after it appeared we were out of the running earlier this year. Having part of the SKA here will mean thousands more jobs in Australia, development of new infrastructure and will likely result in our consideration as a foremost researching nation in deep space.

Phase 1 SKA dishes will be built mostly in South Africa, while low frequency array antennas that are a part of Phases 1 and 3 will be built in Australia. What this means is we’ll be studying the universe’s make up and history, as well as things like dark matter and dark energy. South Africa will be more focused on imaging of specific space objects, as well as test theories about gravity.

South African minister for science, Naledi Pandor, was initially unhappy with the split decision, especially after it appeared South Africa would take on the whole project. But Australian science minister Chris Evans said Australia had continued to push for their place in the program, and were very happy with the results.

[SMH]