SPACE is not the final frontier for astronomers from the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Organisation at Jodrell Bank.

Stargazers at the Lovell Telescope, the headquarters of the world's biggest radio telescope are taking on the Great Manchester Run on Sunday, May 22.

The field includes a 17-strong team from the SKA project, a global project which has its headquarters at the Observatory.

Joe Diamond, SKA Outreach and events assistant, said: "The SKA project is a great international team effort and some of our staff suggested we enter a team in the Great Manchester Run as a way of relaxing away from the work environment.

"Our runners include scientists, engineers and administrative staff who have come from all over the world, including places such as Australia, South Africa and across Europe, to work on the SKA.

"Staff often go on training runs in the quiet countryside during their lunch breaks and another big advantage to our location is that we're so near to Manchester where we work closely with the University of Manchester."

Instead of using one giant telescope, the SKA will draw on more than 200 smaller dishes and 130,000 antennae spread across South Africa and Australia to create a collecting area of over one square kilometre.

Construction is due to begin in 2018.

Project engineers will build a radio telescope with greater sensitivity and faster at mapping the Universe than today's best observatories, surpassing the power of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Astronomers aim to find out the answers to some of the biggest questions in space, including probing the early universe, testing the theory of gravity and even searching for alien life.

The SKA team, which is raising funds for numerous charities, is among more than 160 companies which have already entered the Great Manchester Run Business Challenge.

greatrun.org/Manchester