Even operating
at a quarter of its eventual capacity, South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope
showed off its phenomenal power, revealing 1,300 galaxies in a tiny corner of
the universe where only 70 were known before. The image released on 18th
July was the first from MeerKAT, where 16 dishes were formally commissioned the
same day.
MeerKAT’s
full contingent of 64 receptors will be integrated next year into multi-nation
Square Kilometer Array (SKA) which is set to become the world’s most powerful
radio telescope. When fully up and running in the 2020’s, the SKA will comprise
3,000 dishes scattered around several countries and allow astronomers to peer
deeper into space in unparallel detail.
It
will have a discovery potential 10,000 times greater than the most advanced
modern instruments and will explore exploding stars, black holes, dark energy
and traces of the universe’s origins some 14 billion year ago.
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