Astronomers effective with South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope presently discovered 1,300 galaxies in a patch of sky that researchers before thought only contained about 70.
While this massive finding is enough to get astronomers excited across the globe, the in truth impressive part is that MeerKAT isn’t even operating at full authority yet because the telescope isn’t all the way built.
"So, right currently, with only 16 of the eventual 64 dishes in place, MeerKAT is already superior than anything equal in the Southern Hemisphere," South Africa’s science and skill minister Naledi Pandor told local media.
"This is astounding since we were supposed to get to that goal only with 32 dishes. We can now wait for that when the full 64 dishes are in place at the end of next year, it will be the best telescope of its kind in the world."
While it’s significant to note that Hubble and other telescopes are clever to pick up a massive quantity of galaxies in a single image, too, MeerKAT is a radio galaxy expert, making it a vital tool if we still want to study (and potentially photograph) supermassive black holes, because it can peer from side to side the thick layers of powder at surround such galaxies.
"In a number of cases, the radio galaxy can have a huge deal of obscuring dust, and you wouldn’t be clever to see anything – or roughly anything – with an optical telescope," astronomer Michael Rich, from the University of California, Los Angeles who was not a part of the latest study, told Mark Strauss from National Geographic.
"But with radio, which goes correct through the dust, there’s no difficulty in seeing it."MeerKAT is scheduled for completion in late-2017, and when its full 64 dishes are in place it will get up a whopping 17,651 square metres (190,000 square feet) in the Northern Cape of South Africa, which lies presently far sufficient from Cape Town to allow astronomers a clear view of the sky, but close sufficient to make construction less of a hassle, reports Strauss.
"It is all beginning to come jointly but there is a great deal of work to be done. This place is leaving to look very different in 5 or so years," Pandor told media about the telescope’s progress. "I am actually thrilled that we got to this point and that currently we are start to be recognised as a country that can offer world-class science to the world."
MeerKAT isn’t the only latest telescope that will be completed soon. One of the majority exciting is NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is scheduled to open in 2018 and replace Hubble.
"What the Webb will actually be doing is looking at the 1st galaxies of the Universe," plan scientist Mark Clampin said of the telescope back in April 2015. "We will also be clever, with these capabilities, to look in extremely dark parts of the Universe where stars are being born."
On the other side of the globe, Chinese astronomers have lately finished installing the main 'alien-hunting' telescope in the world – a 500-metre (1,640-foot) device that official are calling the Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) – which will with any luck bring us a step closer to finding alien life somewhere in the Universe.
As our ability to make improved and better telescopes improves, astronomers will lastly have the tools they require to understand some of the fundamental mysteries of the Universe, such as how it all began, how dark energy and matter- works, and what’s up with black- holes.
While this massive finding is enough to get astronomers excited across the globe, the in truth impressive part is that MeerKAT isn’t even operating at full authority yet because the telescope isn’t all the way built.
"So, right currently, with only 16 of the eventual 64 dishes in place, MeerKAT is already superior than anything equal in the Southern Hemisphere," South Africa’s science and skill minister Naledi Pandor told local media.
"This is astounding since we were supposed to get to that goal only with 32 dishes. We can now wait for that when the full 64 dishes are in place at the end of next year, it will be the best telescope of its kind in the world."
While it’s significant to note that Hubble and other telescopes are clever to pick up a massive quantity of galaxies in a single image, too, MeerKAT is a radio galaxy expert, making it a vital tool if we still want to study (and potentially photograph) supermassive black holes, because it can peer from side to side the thick layers of powder at surround such galaxies.
"In a number of cases, the radio galaxy can have a huge deal of obscuring dust, and you wouldn’t be clever to see anything – or roughly anything – with an optical telescope," astronomer Michael Rich, from the University of California, Los Angeles who was not a part of the latest study, told Mark Strauss from National Geographic.
"But with radio, which goes correct through the dust, there’s no difficulty in seeing it."MeerKAT is scheduled for completion in late-2017, and when its full 64 dishes are in place it will get up a whopping 17,651 square metres (190,000 square feet) in the Northern Cape of South Africa, which lies presently far sufficient from Cape Town to allow astronomers a clear view of the sky, but close sufficient to make construction less of a hassle, reports Strauss.
"It is all beginning to come jointly but there is a great deal of work to be done. This place is leaving to look very different in 5 or so years," Pandor told media about the telescope’s progress. "I am actually thrilled that we got to this point and that currently we are start to be recognised as a country that can offer world-class science to the world."
MeerKAT isn’t the only latest telescope that will be completed soon. One of the majority exciting is NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is scheduled to open in 2018 and replace Hubble.
"What the Webb will actually be doing is looking at the 1st galaxies of the Universe," plan scientist Mark Clampin said of the telescope back in April 2015. "We will also be clever, with these capabilities, to look in extremely dark parts of the Universe where stars are being born."
On the other side of the globe, Chinese astronomers have lately finished installing the main 'alien-hunting' telescope in the world – a 500-metre (1,640-foot) device that official are calling the Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) – which will with any luck bring us a step closer to finding alien life somewhere in the Universe.
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