Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand are to share the world's most advanced radio telescope, an array that will consist of thousands of antennae and will allow scientists to look into the far reaches of the universe.

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), so named because that will be the total surface area of the dish antennae used, will be 50 times more sensitive than any previous radio telescope. In peering into the depths of space, it will see life as it was 13 billion years ago.

The main sites will be built in Australia and South Africa with antennae in New Zealand and across nine African countries including Namibia, Botswana, Kenya and Ghana.

Al Jazeera's Tania Page reports from Cape Town, South Africa.