A hugged science project must scrutinize the universe and unveil its deepest mysteries.
The inauguration of the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa will allow scientists to try to understand everything from black energy to extraterrestrial life. 19659002] Built at a cost of 4.4 billion rand, MeerKAT will be incorporated into the complex Square Kilometer Array instrument (SKA) which, when it will be fully operational in the late 2020s, will be the most the largest and most powerful radio telescope in the world
. Space Images
1/30 ISS Earth
From the International Space Station, Flight Engineer Expedition 42 Terry W. Virts took this picture of the Gulf of Mexico and the American Coast of the Gulf at Sunset [19659007] Nasa
2/30 Frost Slopes of Mars
This image of an area on the surface of Mars, d & # 39, about 1.5 to 3 kilometers, shows frosted gullies on a slope facing south in a crater. The image was taken by NASA's HiRISE camera, which climbed into its Reconstruction Orbit of Mars
NASA
3/30 Orion Capsule Splashes
The Capsule Orion sails into space before leaving a few hours later – having proved that it can be used, one day, to transport humans to Mars
Nasa
4 / 30 The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launch
The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, November 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. He also took caviar, ready for the inhabitants of the satellite to celebrate the holidays
Nasa
5/30 Yellowstone Space
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this Yellowstone picture via his twitter account
6/30 Black Hole Friday
NASA celebrated Black Friday by looking in space instead – sharing images of black holes
NASA
] 7/30 NuSTAR
X-rays flow from the sun in this image showing observations of NASA's spectroscopic nuclear telescope network, or NuSTAR, superimposed on an image taken by the observatory of solar dynamics (SDO) of NASA
Nasa
8/30 Saturn
This near-infrared color image shows specular reflection, or the sun, on a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on the moon of Saturn Titan
Nasa
9/30 Worlds Apart
Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both in Saturn orbit, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by the standards of the moon (50 miles or 81 kilometers in diameter) is elongated and irregularly shaped. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers in diameter), a moon of "average size", formed into a sphere due to the self-gravity imposed by its superior mbad
Nasa
10/30 Solar Flare
A solar flare of clbad X1.6 flashes in the middle of the sun in this image taken on September 10, captured by the Observatory of Solar Dynamics of NASA
Nasa
11 / 30 Solar Flare
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) image shows a long solar filament of 200,000 miles tearing the Sun's corona in September 2013
Nasa
12/30 Cbadiopeia A c
A false-color image of Cbadiopeia A including data from the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory
Nasa
13/30 Large Magellan's cloud galaxy
Image of the great Magellan's cloud galaxy seen in infrag e by the Herschel Space Observatory. Space regions like this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust
Nasa
14/30 Mars Rover Spirit [19659005] The Nasa Mars Rover Spirit took the first picture of the Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. The picture shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack
Nasa
15/30 Morning Dawn From Space Station
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora of the International Space Station
16/30 Launch of history – Realization of the STS-41G mission in 1984
Launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger since Florida at dawn. During this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to make an outing in space and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The seven-person crew was the biggest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts
17/30 A new perspective on a cluster extraordinary galaxies
Clusters of galaxies are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerates of galaxies, hot gases and dark matter that represent the largest structures in the Universe maintained by gravity
18/30 Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant
The NASA Hubble Space Telescope unveiled in amazing detail a small section of the Veil Nebula – expanding remains of a mbadive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago
19/30 Hubble sees a galactic sunflower
The arrangement of the spiral arms in the Messier galaxy 63, seen here in an image of the Nasa Hubble space telescope, recalls the motif in the center of a sunflower
20 / 30 A cosmic couple Hubble
The spectacular cosmic couple of the star Hen 2-427 – more commonly known as WR 124 – and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it
21/30 Pluto image
Four images of the recognition imager New Horizons' long-range e (LORRI) were combined with Ralph's instrument color data to create fresh crater near the Mars area of Sirenum Fossae
The HiRISE camera aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter NASA has acquired this close-up image of a "fresh" (geologically). , although quite old on the human scale) crater impact in the region of Sirenum Fossae of Mars. This impact crater appears relatively new because it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta
23/30 Earth Observations of Gemini IV in 1965
This photograph of the Strait of Florida and the Grand Bahama bench was taken during Gemini IV mission during orbit no. In 1964, the Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photographs of land time and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic space walk on June 3
24/30 NASA celebrates 50 years of Spacewalking
For 50 years, NASA has been "getting ready" for spacewalk. In this 1984 photograph of the first spacewalk, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless is in the middle of the first "in the field" trial of a backpack powered device at the time. Nitrogen Maneuvered Maneuvers Unit
25/30 Hubble Peers in the Most Crowded Location of the Milky Way
This image of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope presents the group of arches, the The densest stars of the Milky Way
26/30 NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on September 2, 2014 [19659066] 27/30 Terrestrial Geography on Mars
On Mars, one can observe four clbades of sandy reliefs formed by wind, or aeolian bedforms: undulations, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what? it is called "draa"
28/30 Expedition 39 Landing
A helmet of costume of e Sokol can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft has landed with Ex Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Commander Soyuz Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos and flight engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the city of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan
29/30 The big red spot of Jupiter by Voyager I
30/30 The Chandra Observatory sees a heart in the darkness
1/30 ISS Earth
From the International Space Station, Terry W. Virts, Flight Engineer Expedition 42 took this picture of the Gulf of Mexico and the American coast of the Gulf at sunset
Nasa
2/30 Frosted Slopes of Mars
This image of an area on the surface of Mars, about 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted ravines on a v-oriented slope to the south in a crater. The picture was taken by NASA's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its March Recognition Orbiter
NASA
3/30 Orion Capsule Splashes
The capsule Orion sails into space before leaving a few hours later – having proved that it can be used, one day, to transport humans to Mars
Nasa
4 / 30 The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launch
The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, November 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. He also took caviar, ready for the inhabitants of the satellite to celebrate the holidays
Nasa
5/30 Yellowstone Space
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this Yellowstone picture via his twitter account
6/30 Black Hole Friday
NASA celebrated Black Friday by looking in space instead – sharing images of black holes
Nasa
] 7/30 NuSTAR
X-rays drift from the sun on this image showing observations of NASA's spectroscopic nuclear telescope network, or NuSTAR, superimposed on an image taken by the observatory of solar dynamics (SDO) of NASA
Nasa
8/30 Saturn
This near-infrared color image shows specular reflection, or the sun, of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on the moon of Saturn Titan
Nasa
9/30 Worlds Apart
Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both in Saturn orbit, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by the standards of the moon (50 miles or 81 kilometers in diameter) is elongated and irregularly shaped. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers in diameter), a moon of "average size", formed into a sphere due to the self-gravity imposed by its superior mbad
Nasa
10/30 Solar Flare
A solar flare of clbad X1.6 flashes in the middle of the sun in this image taken on September 10, captured by the Observatory Solar Dynamics of NASA
Nasa
11/30 Solar Flare
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Solar Image shows a solar filament 200,000 miles long that rips the Sun's corona in September 2013
Nasa
12/30 ] Cbadiopeia A c
A false-color image of Cbadiopeia A including data from the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory
Nasa
13/30 Great galaxy Magellan's Clouds
Image of Magellan's Great Cloud Galaxy View in infrared by the Herschel space observatory. The regions of space like this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust
Nasa
14/30 Mars Rover Spirit [19659005] The Nasa Mars Rover Spirit took the first picture of the Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. The picture shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack
Nasa
15/30 Dawn morning of the space station
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora of the International Space Station
16/30 Launch of history – Realization of the STS-41G mission in 1984
Launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger since Florida at dawn. During this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to make an outing in space and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The seven-person crew was the biggest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts
17/30 A new perspective on a cluster extraordinary galaxies
Clusters of galaxies are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerates of galaxies, hot gases and dark matter that represent the largest structures in the Universe maintained by gravity
18/30 Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope unveiled in amazing detail a small section of the Veil Nebula – the expanding remains of a mbadive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago
19/30 Hubble sees a galactic sunflower
The arrangement of the spiral arms in the Messier galaxy 63, seen here in an image of the Nasa Hubble space telescope, recalls the motif in the center of a sunflower
20 / 30 A cosmic couple Hubble
The spectacular cosmic couple of the star Hen 2-427 – more commonly known as WR 124 – and the nebula M1-67 that surrounds it
21 / 30 Pluto Image
Four images of the recognition imager long-range (LORRI) New Horizons were combined with Ralph's instrument color data to create fresh crater near Sirenum Fossae region of Mars
The HiRISE camera aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of NASA acquired this enlarged image of a "fresh" (at the geological scale, although old enough on the human scale) crater impact in the Sirenum Fossae region of March. This impact crater appears relatively new because it has a sharp border and well-preserved ejecta
23/30 Earth Observations From Gemini IV in 1965
This photograph of the Strait of Florida and the Grand Bahama bench was taken during Gemini IV mission during orbit no. In 1964, the Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photographs of land time and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic space walk on June 3
24/30 NASA celebrates 50 years of Spacewalking
For 50 years, NASA has been "getting ready" for spacewalk. In this 1984 photograph of the first spacewalk, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless is in the middle of the first "field" test of a backpack device powered to the Called Maneuvering Maneuvers Unit
25/30 Hubble Peers in the Most Crowded Place of the Milky Way
This image of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope presents the cluster of arches, the densest cluster of stars in the Milky Way
26/30 NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on September 2, 2014 [19659135] 27/30 Terrestrial Geography on Mars
On Mars, one can observe four clbades of sandy reliefs formed by wind, or aeolian bedforms: undulations, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what? is called "draa"
28/30 Expedition 39 Landing
A helmet of Sokol suit can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft landed with Ex Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the commander of the Soyuz Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos and flight engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the city of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan
29/30 The Great Red Spot of Jupiter by Voyager I
30/30 The Chandra Observatory sees a heart in the darkness
Up to 3000 dishes co-hosted in Africa and Australia will then scan the sky 10,000 times faster with 50 times the sensitivity The SKA scientists said that the Kepler Space Telescope is running out of fuel and that it is forced to take a nap.
"MeerKAT will address some of the key scientific questions of modern astrophysics – how did galaxies form, how do they evolve, how did we come here … and for these purposes MeerKAT is the best to the world, "said Fernando Camilo, chief scientist of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory who built and operates the telescope.
At an inauguration ceremony, Camilo released new images taken by MeerKAT of the area surrounding the supermbadive black hole. In the center of the Milky Way galaxy, 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 to get these amazing images, the best in the world, tells you that you have done something good, better than just, "he told Reuters.
MeerKAT is a follow-up to KAT 7 (Karoo Array Telescope), built in the vast semi-designate the Karoo region north of Cape Town to demonstrate South Africa's ability to host the SKA.His name is a game of words: in Afrikaans, "meer" means "more", as in "more KAT", but it also refers to the small mammal native of Karoo and famous for its hind legs to see the world.
In addition to research revolutionary in astronomy, MeerKAT pushes the boundaries of big data and high performance computing, helping IBM to develop systems capable of handling the tremendous amount of data transmitted by each antenna to supercomputers buried underground.
The largest radio telescope of its kind in the southern hemisphere, MeerKAT looks like a cluster of eggs when seen for the first time an hour away from Carnarvon
. The dish is almost as high as a three-story building, turning on a fixed pedestal while it sweeps the sky. Chosen because of its remoteness, with hills providing an additional shield against radio interference, the project site is the main African base for hundreds of antennas that will eventually be placed up to Kenya and South Africa. in Ghana.
"The first phase of SKA 1 in South Africa is to add 133 antennas to that (of MeerKAT)," said Rob Adam, a member of the SKA International Board of Directors
. Expansion is expected to begin next year, said Adam, with the first prototype built in China at the site about 450 kilometers north of Cape Town in the Northern Cape Province. MeerKAT will work independently before being incorporated into SKA 1 around 2023, said Adam.
Additional report from Reuters