South Africa launches the largest radio telescope in the world



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On July 13, the huge MeerKAT telescope of 64 plates inaugurated in the remote town of Carnarvon, South Africa, unleashes the cosmic enigmas of black energy to extraterrestrial life.

This telescope is the largest and most sensitive in the southern hemisphere until the completion of the square kilometers network (SKA). MeerKAT will be incorporated into the complex Kilometer Array Square Instrument (SKA) which, when fully operational by the end of the 2020s

will cost 4.4 billion rand (23 billion INR). 3,000 dishes co-hosted in Africa and Australia will scan the sky 10,000 times faster (50 times) the sensitivity of any other telescope and produce high quality images that the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. The South African Radioastronomy Observatory has built and operated

Cherif Sceintist at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, Fernando Camilo said: "MeerKAT will address some of the key scientific issues of Modern astrophysics – how galaxies shape, how do they evolve, how did we come here, and for these purposes MeerKAT is the best in the world, "

Camilo released new images taken by MeerKAT of the region surrounding the supermbadive black hole in the center of the Milky Way, some 25,000 light-years away

"We did not expect to use our telescope so early in the game, it's not even optimized, but to turn it to the center of the galaxy and get These amazing pictures, the best in the world, tell you that you did something good, better than just, "he told Reuters

MeerKAT is next to KAT 7 (Karoo Array Telescope), built in the vast semi-desert. Karoo region north of Cape Town to demonstrate South Africa's ability to host the SKA. In Afrikaans, we speak of "more KAT", but also small mammal native of Karoo and famous for his hind legs to see the world.

MeerKAT also creates space in the big data and high performance computing with IBM helps to develop systems capable of handling the dizzying amount of data provided by each antenna individual to supercomputers buried in depth to limit radio interference.

Each sensitive dish seemed as tall three-story building, turning on a fixed pedestal while it sweeps the sky. The project site is the main African base for hundreds of antennas that will be placed up to Kenya and Ghana.

in South Africa is to add 133 antennas to that (of MeerKAT), "said Rob Adam, a member of the SKA International Board of Directors

is expected to start the program. next year, with the first prototype of a dish built in China on 450 kilometers north of Cape Town in Northern Cape Province, MeerKAT will operate independently before being incorporated into SKA 1 around 2023, said Adam. [19659012] [ad_2]
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