PUBLIC TALK: Astronomy in the 21st Century with the Square Kilometre Array

Astronomy is the oldest scientific endeavour of mankind. Over the past 400 years, the invention and the development of telescopes has allowed us to step outside our own solar system to begin a new voyage of discovery, back in time, to the birth of the cosmos. We are now nearing a period in our cosmic time travel that will contain one of the Universe’s most profound events –the first light from the first star – the “dawn of creation”. This event will be found and studied by a new telescope which, when completed in 2020, will be the world’s largest astronomical facility. The telescope is called the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and Western Australia is currently the front-runner in an international competition to host the SKA. In my talk, I will give a broad overview of our cosmic journey back in time – what we have found so far, what mysteries we have uncovered and what we hope to find with the new generation of telescopes we are about to build.