A giant telescope opens: images from the center of the Milky Way

64 antennas connected to a huge telescope – in the South African desert Karoo, the MeerKAT radio telescope was opened. It is supposed to provide images of space that you have never seen before.

By Jana Genth, Johannesburg ARD Studio

It sounds a bit like high tech on the moon. In an arid desert landscape are 64 gigantic bowls, each with huge antennas. Each has a diameter of 13.5 meters, which is a three-axle bus in urban traffic. All were connected to the MeerKat radio telescope.

Overall, they constitute the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere. The individual bowls are spread over eight kilometers. The big goal of MeerKat: It is to deliver images of space that you have never seen before. This is because scientists want to better understand the universe. MeerKat was officially opened in the morning

up to 100 times more accurate than other telescopes

The giant bowls are found in the Karoo, a semi-desert northeast of Cape Town. MeerKat could soon photograph objects thousands of light years from Earth. What Galileo Galilei started is now elevated to a whole new level. MeerKat's instruments will be 50 to 100 times more accurate than any other radio telescope.

In science, this should be a great success for South Africa. This could be used to develop new technologies that can be used by many generations, said Vice President David Mabuza. "It's an important project that will move our country forward and we'll learn a lot."

International Research Project

The telescope cost more than one billion euros. For MeerKat, eleven countries from five continents work together. Simon Berry, Project Leader, said, "It's not that simple.

Not only scientists collaborate on such a project, but also government officials. It's quite complex. They all have different priorities, different requirements. In the end, one has to justify why countries invest a lot of money in such a project.

Although the icy wind blew at the inauguration, the bowls already work properly. At first, there was a picture of a huge black hole in the middle of the Milky Way.