The “SKA” project, for Square Kilometer Array, was imagined by an international scientific consortium to study essential scientific questions ranging from the birth of the Universe to the origins of life. This by creating the largest radio telescope in the world, thanks to the installation of thousands of radio telescopes in different places around the globe.
With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Sarah Tetaud
On the island, an astrophysicist fights to join the adventure. A director, touched by the project and by what it could bring to the country, decided to make a film of it, ” the Mysteries of Arivonimamo released in theaters this week.
” – It’s really impressive teacher !
– She is gigantic, how tall is she? ?
– I believe, 40 meters … »
On screen, in front of Arivonimamo’s huge parabolic antenna, the three protagonists of this documentary-fiction. Two schoolgirls, passionate about astronomy, question the astrophysicist Charles Ratsifaritana on the role that this antenna could play if the Big Island integrated the SKA project.
Behind the camera is Malagasy director and producer Franco Clerc. He worked voluntarily on this film: It was the perfect opportunity to talk about a subject that can inspire and interest Malagasy youth. And then I really fell in love with Professor Charles’ initiative, because it would allow Madagascar to join a world-scale project in terms of astrophysics and radio astronomy, with all the opportunities that it can bring to Malagasy youth and scientists. And if the film can attract enough people and interest and why not raise funding that would allow this project to materialize, well great ! »
Because to launch Madagascar into the adventure, ” it’s missing 80 000 dollars so far “, explains Professor Charles Ratsifaritana, national coordinator of the project.
Unravel the mysteries of Dark Ages ” of the universe
” The antenna that exists in Arivonimamo is an antenna that was used for international telecommunications. And to be transformed into a radio telescope, you have to make improvements, engine changes, there are a lot of things that need to be changed inside. I hope the state will accept. It’s something that is for the country, for the country’s development, education, research, our international visibility. If we miss that, it would be a shame! It’s going to be the largest radio telescope in the world! Thousands of telescopes will be aligned in a system called interferometry. And all in unison, on a specific location, will record a maximum of radiation, sources of information “, he adds.
With this system of radio telescopes, scientists hope to unravel the mysteries of ” Dark Ages ” : them ” dark ages of the universe, or to check if Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity is still valid under very extreme conditions.
” We will discover things. Things we don’t know and things we don’t even know we don’t know adds the professor mischievously.
The Malagasy radio telescope could also, according to the professor, transmit a lot of information useful for monitoring the coasts and the territory, for agriculture or even for managing the evolution of climate change.
