Africa and Australasia to share Square Kilometre Array

South Africa, Australia and New Zealand will host the biggest radio telescope ever built.

The nations belonging to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) organisation took the decision at a meeting on Friday.

The fields of antennas, costing 1.5bn-euro (£1.2bn), will sweep the sky for answers to the major outstanding questions in astronomy.

They will probe the early Universe, test Einstein's theory of gravity and even search for alien intelligent life.

Pallab Ghosh reports.