http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article445321.ece/MeerKAT-scope-puts-SA-light-years-ahead
The "first light" images from the MeerKAT radio telescope project - which reads faint radiowave signals from outer space - is a major victory for local star-gazers who say they are now literally light years ahead of their Australian counterparts in the "radio space race".
The images were recorded last month.
"It worked first time. It really is an amazing tribute to the team of engineers who did this," said Professor Justin Jonas, SKA South Africa associate director of science & engineering, yesterday.
"I guess the important political aspect of this is that we have done it before the Australians," Jonas added.
MeerKAT is seen as South Africa's precursor for the much bigger SKA (Square Kilometre Array) radio telescope, which is due to be built in either South Africa or Australia at a cost of about R20-billion. SKA is considered one of mankind's most ambitious science projects to date, involving over 50 heavyweight scientific institutions from 19 countries.
Not only would the MeerKAT project's success secure South Africa's position at the forefront of the bidding for SKA, it would enable the global scientific community to look back through time to galaxies created not long after the Big Bang.
The MeerKAT success is seen as a major boost for South Africa's scientific ambition.
By proving the accuracy of the Karoo antennae, the South Africans have demonstrated they are ready to star gaze anywhere in the universe.
The MeerKAT images were produced by combining data from four large radio antennae - MeerKAT has seven in total and will eventually have 80 - which were aimed at the Centaurus A galaxy 14-million light years away.
The galaxy, which has a black hole at its centre, is normally obscured by a lane of dust and gas.
"The data were recorded to a computer disk and processed with advanced software to produce an image of a jet being ejected from the black hole at the core of this amazing galaxy," the team said in a statement.
The head of the South African team, Dr Bernie Fanaroff, said: "This shows that we are well on track with the development of our SKA site, and the development of the systems and understanding required to build and operate advanced scientific instruments such as MeerKAT and the SKA. We have a world-class team and we are proud of them."
The Centaurus images were also proof that the South African site was "radio quiet" or relatively free of "interfering" radio signals from satellites, cellphones and TV antennae, according to MeerKAT science processing sub-system manager Dr Jasper Horrell.
"In this particular observation we didn't do any editing out of radio noise. The fact that we were able to do that [and still get good images] is a good indication that we have a very good radio-quiet site," Horrell said
The "first light" images from the MeerKAT radio telescope project - which reads faint radiowave signals from outer space - is a major victory for local star-gazers who say they are now literally light years ahead of their Australian counterparts in the "radio space race".
The images were recorded last month.
"It worked first time. It really is an amazing tribute to the team of engineers who did this," said Professor Justin Jonas, SKA South Africa associate director of science & engineering, yesterday.
"I guess the important political aspect of this is that we have done it before the Australians," Jonas added.
MeerKAT is seen as South Africa's precursor for the much bigger SKA (Square Kilometre Array) radio telescope, which is due to be built in either South Africa or Australia at a cost of about R20-billion. SKA is considered one of mankind's most ambitious science projects to date, involving over 50 heavyweight scientific institutions from 19 countries.
Not only would the MeerKAT project's success secure South Africa's position at the forefront of the bidding for SKA, it would enable the global scientific community to look back through time to galaxies created not long after the Big Bang.
The MeerKAT success is seen as a major boost for South Africa's scientific ambition.
By proving the accuracy of the Karoo antennae, the South Africans have demonstrated they are ready to star gaze anywhere in the universe.
The MeerKAT images were produced by combining data from four large radio antennae - MeerKAT has seven in total and will eventually have 80 - which were aimed at the Centaurus A galaxy 14-million light years away.
The galaxy, which has a black hole at its centre, is normally obscured by a lane of dust and gas.
"The data were recorded to a computer disk and processed with advanced software to produce an image of a jet being ejected from the black hole at the core of this amazing galaxy," the team said in a statement.
The head of the South African team, Dr Bernie Fanaroff, said: "This shows that we are well on track with the development of our SKA site, and the development of the systems and understanding required to build and operate advanced scientific instruments such as MeerKAT and the SKA. We have a world-class team and we are proud of them."
The Centaurus images were also proof that the South African site was "radio quiet" or relatively free of "interfering" radio signals from satellites, cellphones and TV antennae, according to MeerKAT science processing sub-system manager Dr Jasper Horrell.
"In this particular observation we didn't do any editing out of radio noise. The fact that we were able to do that [and still get good images] is a good indication that we have a very good radio-quiet site," Horrell said
