Science & technology minister Derek Hanekom has welcomed a UK contribution of R1,7bn to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. “The significance is in the impetus that this provides to implementation of phase one of the SKA,” Hanekom said in a statement on Tuesday. “This is a most welcome commitment
Browsing: Square Kilometre Array
The 64th and final foundation for the MeerKAT telescope antenna has been laid at the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) site outside Carnarvon in the Karoo, the SKA Organisation has announced. Almost to 5 000 cubic metres of concrete and more than 570 tons of steel were used to construct the foundations, a project
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Organisation is considering changing its governance structure to a treaty organisation because of tax. The organisation, comprising the countries that are financing the world’s biggest radio telescope, is currently a corporation
The wind picks up, blowing whorls of dust down the street. The men sitting on the side of the road avert their eyes and retreat further into the shade of the colonial-style building they are leaning against. This was a common sight in Carnarvon in the Northern Cape in 2011, before
Science and technology minister Derek Hanekom on Tuesday unveiled programmes in Carnarvon, the town nearest to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) site, to boost maths and science education in the area. South Africa will be sharing the world’s largest telescope, which comprises
The first phase of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope in the Karoo could result in an inflow of R18bn into South Africa, says science & technology minister Derek Hanekom. “Preliminary estimates for the operations cost put the potential net foreign inflow into South Africa – for SKA phase one only
There was a bang, we think. About 14bn years ago, a tiny singularity — a point smaller than a pinhead and containing all the matter in our universe – exploded. We’re pretty sure. If we accept that the universe started with a bang – an “if” that is infinite and expanding at about 70km per second per megaparsec as you
As governments worry about how they will legislate the access to and analysis of “big data”, scientists are still trying to figure out how they’re going to cope with the deluge of information. “Big data is a very abused term that is bandied about a lot,” says Simon Ratcliffe, technical lead for scientific
In all of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) excitement, we’ve forgotten that it is first and foremost a scientific instrument, created to allow scientists to answer questions that can’t be answered with existing equipment: how are galaxies created? Are there other habitable planets? What is dark matter? What is
It is difficult to teach radio astronomy, which detects invisible radio waves, to students. It is not like optical astronomy where you can point a dish at the sky and stare at a star, says Anita Loots, associate director at Square Kilometre Array (SKA) South Africa. “The concepts are abstract because you can’t