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Johannesburg (dpa) – The semi-desert Karoo starry sky in South Africa is clear, the nearest village is nearly 100 kilometers away. Here, there is almost nothing that disturbs the view in the universe the Milky Way is already clearly visible to the naked eye.
But this is nothing compared to the images provided by the Meerkat radio telescope, which was inaugurated on Friday, allowing researchers to take a close look at the center of the Milky Way, at about 25,000 light-years away.
"It is the most powerful and most sensitive radio telescope of its kind in the world," said Rob Adam, head of the Sarao operating company at the inauguration ceremony in North Cape Province. The expensive radio telescope of 4.4 billion rand (280 million euros) consists of 64 plate-shaped antennas with a diameter of 13.5 meters, spread over several kilometers.
"The telescope is a giant step in the exploration of space," said technical director Justin Jonas. Suricate should therefore be able to map millions of galaxies and help solve the mysteries of the universe, which seem insoluble until now. The location in the Karoo is perfect because the sparsely populated area is barely affected by terrestrial interference, said Jonas.
Sensitive radio telescopes first collect radio waves from space, then computers process the signals and convert them into images. "As individual antennas are distributed further, the images are sharper than with other systems," says Norbert Junkes of the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn. The institute contributed part of the reception systems worth 11 million euros. "Meerkat opens the southern starry sky that you can not see in the northern hemisphere," says Junkes. Phenomena such as Magellanic clouds – two dwarf galaxies next to the Milky Way – could now be better explored, Junkes explains.
The installation is the largest radio telescope in the southern hemisphere. Among the most important installations are the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico and the Chinese Fast Observatory. Meerkat should allow, among other things, to make clearer images of the center of the Milky Way. Fernando Camilo, scientific director of Sarao, said the region is hard to imagine for other telescopes due to the presence of gas clouds and dust.
The interest of the international astronomical community in the radio telescope in the west of the city of Carnarvon is great: 300 scientists have already been given a time of observation, explain the operators. Including German researchers.
In a few years, Meerkat will be integrated into the even larger Mileage Kilometer Network (SKA), which will be spread over several countries. After completion, it should be up to 100 times more sensitive than any other radio telescope and can look almost back to space until the Big Bang, responsible people promise. SKA is run by eleven countries, including South Africa Australia, China, Britain and Italy. Germany is not yet one of the full members. However, a German badociation of scientists and institutions aspires to become an badociate member, says Junkes.
SKA South Africa Project Page
Frequently asked questions about the MeerKAT project
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