Africa’s MeerKAT ‘first light’ images have blown all expectations

[rpm]

Africa’s MeerKAT ‘first light’ images have blown all expectations

Something hugely important is happening in a vast, quiet stretch of South Africa’s Northern Cape province. A new radio telescope operating at just a quarter of its full power is revealing the universe’s secrets one image at a time.

MeerKAT will ultimately become part of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope. Once it’s completed some time in the decade following 2020, the SKA will be the world’s largest radio telescope. The project is shared between South Africa and Australia. It’s not just its size that sets it apart from other radio telescopes but also sensitivity and speed. At full power, the SKA will have 50 times the sensitivity and 10,000 times the survey speed of the best existing telescopes.

It will see more, and see it faster. It can explore the universe and answer some of humanity’s biggest scientific questions – like, “Is there life out there?” and “How are galaxies formed?”

All of this lies some time in the future. But already, MeerKAT is yielding remarkable results.

 

[konfab]

"With this setup, a user might be able to get 90 MB/s from CellC"

 

[Arthur]

"With this setup, a user might be able to get 90 MB/s from CellC"

You'll have to switch off your cell anywhere near the thing. Here's the "Radio Silence" sign at the turn-off to MeerKAT, taken a few weeks ago when I was there (see the dishes in the distance on right):

Little chuckle regarding the name MeerKAT:

Original 16-dish design: KAT = Karoo Array Telescope

Later doubled to 32 and then again to 64: They added more dishes, "meer" in Afrikaans, so it became MeerKAT. A little punnish joke. Nothing to do with the furry little critter, though once the name was chosen the meerkat was adopted as the mascot.

 

[LazyLion]

I wonder what SA will look like in the decade after 2020...

 

[crackersa]

I wonder if the radio silence is going to cause conflict as the community grows.

 

[Necropolis]

Little chuckle regarding the name MeerKAT:

Original 16-dish design: KAT = Karoo Array Telescope

Later doubled to 32 and then again to 64: They added more dishes, "meer" in Afrikaans, so it became MeerKAT. A little punnish joke. Nothing to do with the furry little critter, though once the name was chosen the meerkat was adopted as the mascot.

I approve of this choice of name

 

[Seriously]

I wonder what SA will look like in the decade after 2020...

If nothing drastically change soon like Zuma being fired by December and ANC LOSING POWER by 2019 ........ then just take sneek peek at Zim to see a snippit of a glimpse at South Africa's future during the 2020+ decade.

Other than that I have high hopes that we could survive and grow in future
I would love to see the MeerKAT achievements in the future after 2020 when its completed.

 

[Oopsie]

A very apt name as meerkats are forever standing on their hind legs and gazing upwards.