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ITALIAN TEAM WILL COLLABORATE WITH SPACE RESEARCHERS IN AUSTRALIA

The Sky Polarization Observatory, SPOrt, was presented yesterday in Melbourne 
at the Italian-Australian Technological Innovation Conference and Exhibition, 
IATICE 2002. 

The ground-breaking project, which was initiated in Italy and has been developed 
by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR (National Research Council) in 
Bologna, was funded by Italy's space program. 

The experiment is set up to execute the first-ever measurements of the 
polarization of cosmic waves, thus being able to establish the imprint that 
the "Big Bang" left when the universe was created. 

According to Professor Stefano Zecchetta, who spoke at the opening of the 
conference, the project is a technical feat that required totally innovative 
ways of approaching the existing technology that is available world-wide. 

Professor Zecchetto declared that SPOrt is also a wonderful example of the 
beginning of a collaboration between Australia and Italy in which each will 
contribute a different dimension to the project. 

The industrial side of the project is already in a state of development, 
while the exchange of technological information between the two countries and 
the realization of those parts of the experiment which the two countries will 
share are still being defined.