Bronwyn Herbert reported this story on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 08:18:00

TONY EASTLEY: Later today in London, Australia will find out if it or South Africa will become home to the world's most powerful telescope, known as the Square Kilometre Array.



Four hundred million dollars in state and federal funding is behind Australia's bid, as well as a decade of scientific work.



Bronwyn Herbert reports.



BRONWYN HERBERT: It's known as the Square Kilometre Array and will be made up of thousands of radio antennas linked electronically and spread across 3,000 kilometres.



Australia and New Zealand have combined forces in an attempt to host the $2 billion project.



Astronomer Brian Boyle from the CSIRO is leading the bid.



BRIAN BOYLE: The centre of this huge Array will be located in the mid-west region of Western Australia, in Murchison Shire. Half the antennas will be located in a small region five kilometres by five kilometres across, but then we'll have antenna stations comprising about 100 antennas stretched out from that core at increasing separations, all the way out to South Island, New Zealand.



Crucially, what you need if you're going to study faint radio signals from the cosmos is a very quiet environment, so the most important thing is to get away from humanity and that's why we've chosen the Murchison radio astronomy observatory as our core site.



BRONWYN HERBERT: Dr Boyle says there are several scientific goals behind the project.



BRIAN BOYLE: Initially we're going to be able to see ten times further into the universe than we have ever been able to see before with a radio telescope. We will be able to look right back to the first few thousand million years after the big bang and look at the whole evolution of the universe.



We'll be able to study exotic objects like pulsars and quasars in much greater numbers than we've ever been able to do.



BRONWYN HERBERT: Australia's stable society, economy and scientific expertise are rated as its strengths. While proponents of the South African bid - centred in the Karoo Desert - say it would significantly boost development as well as improve science.



SOUTH AFRICAN BID REPRESENTATIVE 1: You now meet school kids and young professionals and so on who have actually nothing to do with the project but who are already talking about science.



SOUTH AFRICAN BID REPRESENTATIVE 2: People that haven't had the opportunity before, you come in and work in a company like this and you can actually work up high, get a good salary. And because you are improving yourself you can, you know, improve your kids.



So this like the long term solution to better Africa.



BRONWYN HERBERT: The recommendation from an independent scientific committee will be given to the project's board of directors today when they meet in London, but another month of negotiations are likely before Australia is officially notified whether it gets the honour.



TONY EASTLEY: Bronwyn Herbert reporting.