With the first of more than 130,000 two-metre-tall, Christmas tree-shaped antennas being installed last week in Western Australia.

They’ll make up the SKA-Low radio telescope and the first ten field technicians have begun their work of installing the massive array which, when complete, will see the SKA-Low telescope enable scientists to explore the first billion years after the so-called dark ages of the Universe, when the first stars and galaxies were formed. Western Australia’s array is one of two telescopes, with SKA-Mid in South Africa also under construction to form the giant radio telescope.