SA's MeerKAT 'in demand'
2010-10-25 16:07
Cape Town - South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope is not even in service yet, and already 43 000 hours of observational time has been allocated.
"Five years before South Africa's MeerKAT telescope becomes operational, more than 43 000 hours of observing time (adding up to about five years) have already been allocated to radio astronomers from Africa and around the world, who have applied for time to do research with this unique and world-leading instrument," the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) said on its website.
The MeerKAT is a "test bed" facility that will eventually consists of 80 connected radio telescopes for the SKA which will consist of thousands of dishes in the Northern Cape Province, in an area near Carnarvon designated a "radio reserve".
Currently, the area comprises the KAT-7 (Karoo Array Telescope) which consists of seven dishes to test various technologies to accelerate the development of the MeerKAT.
Minister of science and technology Naledi Pandor endorsed the project, calling it South Africa's "grand challenge" and said that the cost would be covered by international partners.
Proposals
"We call this our grand challenge. It may reveal new details about dark energy; it may be able to give us new clues about the nature of gravity and whether alien life exists.
"The cost will be borne by our partners. The US has promised a 40% contribution and eight European countries - France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom - have promised 40%," she told News24 at the launch of the project.
The SKA invited bids for research in October and there have been hundreds of proposals from international astronomers.
"Following an October 2009 invitation to the world's radio astronomers to apply for MeerKAT telescope time to perform large survey projects, 21 proposals, involving more than 500 astronomers from around the world (59 from Africa), were received," said a statement.
Proposals included the studying of radio pulsars and hydrogen gas were immediately successful, but there were also projects to study Einstein's theory of gravity and investigate the physics of neutron stars.
"There is a strong case for MeerKAT to participate in the world-wide VLBI (very long baseline interferometry) observations, which use telescopes all around the world, working together," said Dr Bernie Fanaroff, Director of the SKA South Africa Project.
Nasa astronaut Dr Jeff Hoffman will visit SA in November to give a series of public lectures in Johannesburg, Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Durban and Cape Town to increase awareness science through astronomy in support of the SA bid to host the SKA.
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