• SARAO hosts 4th Big Data Africa School drawing synergies between radio astronomy and biomedical imaging

    This year’s school hosted 25 participants in Cape Town from 5 to 11 March 2023, with participants hailing from diverse regions in Africa.

    Find out more

  • ICALEPCS 2023: early bird registrations and abstract submission now open

    The 19th biennial International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems (ICALEPCS) 2023 will be held from Monday, 9 October to Friday, 13 October 2023.

    Find out more

  • MeerKAT discovers a distant galaxy has very large hydrogen atoms

    A team of astronomers from South Africa and the US have used the MeerKAT telescope to solve a longstanding puzzle in ‘X’-shaped radio galaxies.

    Find out more

  • MeerKAT Grand Tour Data Science workshop held at Rhodes University

    Funded by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (SARAO) Human Capital Development Programme, the workshop was held in collaboration with the Breakthrough Listen initiative, the MeerTime collaboration, the TRAPUM collaboration, the Transient Array Radio Telescope consortium and the Centre for Radio Astronomy Techniques and Technologies (RATT) in the Department of Physics and Electronics at Rhodes University.

    Read more

  • MeerKAT telescope team honoured with prestigious Royal Astronomical Society Award

    The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) has awarded its 2023 Group Achievement Award to the MeerKAT team.

    Find out more

  • SKA Observatory celebrates start of telescope construction in Australia and South Africa

    In ceremonies at both sites in Australia and South Africa, the SKA Observatory celebrated the start of construction of its world-leading radio telescopes and announced €300 million worth of construction contracts.

    Find out more

  • Extraterrestrial signal search is underway using the southern hemisphere’s biggest radio telescope

    Breakthrough Listen has begun observations of a million nearby stars with the MeerKAT Array

    Find out more

  • DigiSkills Africa workshop enhances big data and techno skills of young graduates

    More than 40 participants from 8 African countries attended the in-person part of the Digital Transformation Programme – Technological Skills for Industry 4.0 in Cape Town, South Africa from 7 to 11 November 2022. A further 20 participants attended the workshop online.

    Find out more

  • MeerKAT measures the "fuel reserves" of galaxies in the past

    A global team of astronomers, including many based in South Africa, have measured the fuel for star formation in galaxies as they were 4 billion years ago. The researchers made use of the MeerKAT radio telescope to observe neutral hydrogen gas, which is the most abundant element in the universe, and the material from which stars are formed. Observation of distant galaxies was one of the prime design drivers for MeerKAT, which is built and run by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO).

    Find out more

  • Local impact study of HERA telescope shows direct benefits of radio astronomy infrastructure in South Africa’s Northern Cape province

    The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) has undertaken a local impact study of South Africa’s hosting of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). The HERA telescope is an array of 350 antennas situated next to the MeerKAT radio telescope on the site that hosts the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in the Northern Cape province.

    Find out more

  • New MeerKAT radio image reveals complex heart of the Milky Way

    The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) has released today a new MeerKAT telescope image of the centre of our Galaxy, showing radio emission from the region with unprecedented clarity and depth. The international team behind the work is publishing the initial science highlights from this image in The Astrophysical Journal. The article is accompanied by a public release of the data to the worldwide astronomical community for their further scientific exploration.

    Find out more
1234567891011

The SKA will be the largest radio telescope ever built and will produce science that changes our understanding of the universe. The SKA will be collocated in Australia and in Africa. In Africa the SKA will be built in South Africa and eight other African Countries. SKA South Africa (SKA SA) is responsible for the construction of the SKA in South Africa.

Find out more

LATEST NEWS

SARAO hosts 4th Big Data Africa School drawing synergies between radio astronomy and biomedical imaging

SARAO hosts 4th Big Data Africa School drawing synergies between radio astronomy and biomedical imaging

March 28, 2023 – Share
World Robotics Olympiad launched in Northern Cape – educators trained for 2023 competition

World Robotics Olympiad launched in Northern Cape – educators trained for 2023 competition

March 8, 2023 – Share
ICALEPCS 2023: early bird registrations and abstract submission now open

ICALEPCS 2023: early bird registrations and abstract submission now open

March 1, 2023 – Share
View All News

SARAO Science

TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTS

Hydrogen Epoch of Reionisation Array radio telescope (HERA)

Hydrogen Epoch of Reionisation Array radio telescope (HERA)

Telescopes and Instruments
To solve the mystery of how we came to be where we are, astronomers must look back in time to...
KAT-7 Telescopes

KAT-7 Telescopes

Telescopes and Instruments
The seven-dish MeerKAT precursor array, KAT-7, is the world’s first radio telescope array consisting of composite antenna structures.
C-BASS C-Band All Sky Survey project

C-BASS C-Band All Sky Survey project

Telescopes and Instruments
View All

MeerKAT in Northern Cape, South Africa

The South African MeerKAT radio telescope, situated 90 km outside the small Northern Cape town of Carnarvon, is a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope and will be integrated into the mid-frequency component of SKA Phase 1. The MeerKAT telescope is an array of 64 interlinked receptors (a receptor is the complete antenna structure, with the main reflector, sub-reflector and all receivers, digitisers and other electronics installed). Read More

Hartebeesthoek Site in Johannesburg, South Africa

SARAO Hartebeesthoek Site is located west of Johannesburg, South Africa. built in 1961 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States of America. An 85 foot = 26 metre diameter antenna was used to get data from, and send commands to, many unmanned US space probes going beyond Earth orbit. Read More

Announcements and Upcoming Events