New Zealand Minister Gerry Brownlee will meet tomorrow with his Australian counterpart, Minister Kim Carr, to sign the deal.

"Signing the arrangement sends a strong signal to the international community that both countries are committed to supporting SKA (Square Kilometre Array) related industry opportunities and promoting the relevant capabilities of Australian and New Zealand industry," says Brownlee.

The SKA will comprise up to 5000 small radio antennas, all operating as one giant telescope.

Most will be concentrated in outback Western Australia, along with a series of remote 'array stations' positioned in a spiral pattern radiating out over thousands of kilometres.

The addition of array stations in New Zealand will see the reach of the SKA extend from 3000 to 5000 kilometres, resulting in an almost doubling of the telescope's resolution.

"The scale is enormous," says Brownlee. "It is a truly mega science project, which has a discovery potential ten thousand times greater than existing instruments."

Cross-Tasman support

Professor Sergei Gulyaev of Auckland University of Technology says New Zealand's close working relationship with Australian radio astronomers has helped them become part of the SKA bid.

"Without our Australian colleagues, we could never have made the leap to this next generation digital radio telescope," he says.

Dr Melanie Johnston-Hollitt of Victoria University of Wellington says New Zealand has a lot to offer the Australian bid.

"New Zealand also has strengths in high performance computing, imaging, signal pipeline processing, engineering and antenna design," she says.

The announcement of the SKA's location, in either Australia or South Africa, is expected to be made in 2012.