Enter MeerKAT that will give images better than the Hubble Space Telescope

Durban – The Big Bang Theory, Does the Universe Grow Faster or Slower, Black Holes, Dark Matter and Even Extraterrestrial Life?

These questions could be resolved sooner than we think with the 64-dish MeerKAT, the world's largest radio telescope of its kind, which was unveiled in the Karoo last week.

Built for a cost of R4.4bn, the MeerKAT is part of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) which, when it will be fully operational in the 2020s, will be the first of its kind and the largest and the most the most powerful radio telescope in the world.

Up to 3000 dishes co-organized in Africa and Australia will be able to scan the sky 10,000 times faster, with 50 times the sensitivity of any other telescope and produce images that exceed the quality of resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists said of SKA.

The Chief of Astrophysics and Cosmology Research Unit of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Professor Sunil Maharaj, said that the SKA would be done in phases – SKA1, 2 and 3. "One is now almost finished (MeerKAT). So the next phase is SKA2. This means that we have telescopes that already collect data that are analyzed by scientists, "said Maharaj

.He said that through MeerKAT, we would be able to learn more about the key issues of Science

Radio telescopes from which high quality data could be extracted operate at a frequency that is not audible to us as humans.

He said that the vision was to build hundreds of telescopes on the square kilometer. "And synchronize so that information arrives through these telescopes, and the effect is that we collect this information not from anybody else. Only one telescope but hundreds of them, so that we get 100 times On the Big Bang issue, he said: "Because the information we have about the expansion of the universe is pretty basic, no We do not know if the universe is growing faster or more humble. There is a proof called dark energy – the dark energy is when you look at a supernova that is a star that explodes.

"The description is that these objects are moving away from us more slowly, so the universe is slowing down.

" But new information that is coming in right now is that when you look at the specter of the supernova, they are moving away from us faster, so the proof is that the universe is in the process of expansion. "

At the unveiling yesterday, in the presence of government officials and foreign dignitaries, Fernando Camilo, chief scientist at the Observatory SA Radio Astronomy, has released new images taken by MeerKAT of the region surrounding the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way

"We were not expecting to use our telescope as early in the game, it's not even optimized, but to turn it to the center of the galaxy and get those amazing images, the best in the world, tells you you've done something good, better than well, "said Camilo.

The Independent on Saturday