Design milestone for huge new telescope

A new telescope set to be the largest in the world is a step closer to becoming a reality, with an Australian group completing its infrastructure design.

The plans show more than 132,000 individual antennas will make up the radio telescope, named the Square Kilometre Array, which will be jointly based in the West Australian outback and South Africa.

The infrastructure design has been completed by the CSIRO-led Infrastructure Australia consortium, one of 12 groups involved in designing parts of the telescope.