The SKA will be the largest radio telescope ever built and will produce science that changes our understanding of the universe. In Africa the SKA will be built in South Africa and eight other African Countries. The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), a facility of the National Research Foundation, is responsible for managing all radio astronomy initiatives and facilities in South Africa, including the MeerKAT Radio Telescope in the Karoo, the Geodesy and VLBI activities at the Hartebeesthoek site.
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TELESCOPES, INSTRUMENTS, PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS
Hydrogen Epoch of Reionisation Array radio telescope (HERA)
To solve the mystery of how we came to be where we are, astronomers must look back in time to...
Bursts from Space: Citizen Science Project
Looking at the sky with radio telescopes provides a unique insight into a range of exciting and exotic phenomena. From...
Geodesy Programme
Geodesy, also called geodetics, a branch of earth sciences, is the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation...
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
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