Australia and South Africa will host a giant radio telescope made up of thousands of separate dishes, which will help scientists gain a better understanding of our universe.

IBM announced that it has won a $42 million contract to work with the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy to research a new line of super-fast computers that will be needed for the Square Kilometer Array to perform the most exhaustive search of the origins of the universe seen to date.

DRENTHE, Netherlands and ZURICH, April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and IBM (NYSE: IBM)

The world’s biggest telescope, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), is set to be built in one of two locations depending on the outcome of bidding, which starts today.

A community computing science initiative was officially launched Tuesday morning at Curtin University of Australia, seeking the help of PC users around the world to contribute spare CPU cycles as part of theSkyNet project to further the science of radio astronomy.