In a dark Nevada valley, a new eye is opening on the cosmos. Before the decade is out, the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA)—1,650 20-foot diameter dish-shaped antennas spread over just more than 120 square miles of desert—should begin soaking up radio waves from across the sky. The DSA will combine unprecedented sensitivity and power to try answering some of astronomers’ biggest questions about how galaxies form and grow.
The DSA just reached its final design milestone and will soon begin construction, with completion targeted for 2029. The project is led by the California Institute of Technology and bankrolled by Schmidt Sciences, a splashy new philanthropic venture poised to shake the pillars of U.S astrophysics, where advances are often more sedate—and government funding is the norm.
“The DSA is going to have, by far, the best combination of both sensitivity—seeing far—and sky coverage—seeing wide,” says Maura McLaughlin, an astronomer at West Virginia University, who is part of the telescope’s Science Advisory Committee. “It's a very different way of doing radio astronomy.”
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