Cover story

SKA: the ultimate big data challenge

The SKA will generate ten times the data trafficked across the global internet daily. So how is it going to be processed?

02 May 2013

The human race is on a journey to deep space. The mission: to explore the origins of the universe. Using the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope (SKA), radio signals from deepest space will be collected for scientists the world over to analyse and process. Their challenge? How to transport, store and process the estimated 14 exabytes of data the antennas will gather every day.

The SKA is a radio telescope being built by ten countries, including South Africa. It’s the largest joint project of its kind ever attempted and will result in the construction of the largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever built.

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