President Thabo Mbeki gave the stamp of approval for the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Bill last week, when he signed it into law in Pretoria, now giving the Science and Technology Minister power to declare astronomy advant- age areas.

Project manager of South Africa’s bid to host the SKA, Dr Bernie Fanaroff, said last week that this was a positive move.

“This is a tremendous boost for our international bid to host the SKA, which is likely to be the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the next two decades, consisting of thousands of dishes between 10 and 15 metres in dia- meter,” he commented in an emailed statement.

South Africa and Australia are the only two countries remaining on the shortlist to host this €1,5-billion megatelescope and a final decision on the site is expected by 2010. Construction is likely to start in 2014.

The SKA will be 50 times more sensitive than any existing facility and will probe some of the biggest questions in the universe, including searching for earth- like planets and potential life, looking at the first objects in the universe, testing theories of gravity and examining the mystery of dark energy.

Should South Africa win the bid, it will build the telescope in the Northern Cape, which also hosts the Southern African Large Telescope, or Salt, which is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere.

The Department of Science and Technology said the new astronomy legislation would ensure the protection of large-scale investments already made in astronomy.

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