Data sender: Dr Lisa Harvey-Smith, CSIRO SKA Project Scientist, with new Square Kilometre Array which they are bidding for soon. Photo: Steven Siewert

Wi-Fi, advanced medical imaging and algorithms to detect skin cancer all have one thing in common they were all offshoots of astronomy, CSIRO astronomer Dr Lisa Harvey-Smith says.

While it may primarily be concerned with uncovering the mysteries of the universe, astronomyhas also led to many practical applications, Dr Harvey-Smith said ahead of a talk at the Australian Academy of Science on Tuesday.

Just for ASKAP we've got 72 terabytes per second of data streaming through the antennas.

Dr Harvey-Smith is a part of a team creating the $2 billion international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) billed as the world's largest and most powerful telescope bringing together more than one million separate radio detectors dotted across outback Western Australian and southern Africa.

The SKA telescope will be revolutionary for astronomers allowing them to study millions of galaxies through 10 billion years of cosmic history looking back in time as it reveals how galaxies were formed and challenges the fundamentals of gravity and Einstein's theory, Dr Harvey-Smith said.

Advertisement

But if that wasn't enough, the unprecedented volume of "big data" it will produce at almost incomprehensible speeds will pose an "incredible challenge" for the software world and lead to spin-off technology for wider applications.

"There are lots of ways in which astronomy not only inspires people, but is actually touching their lives in terms of real technology," she said.

Dr Harvey-Smith is the project scientist for the $188 million Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) in Western Australia, one of several prototype telescopes built as a precursor to the SKA.

Read more from the original source:

Astronomer Dr Lisa Harvey-Smith on the SKA project