Media Release

Tesla Minions Triumph at 2023 FIRST Lego League Northern Cape Robotics competition

By SARAO Comms In a thrilling showcase of creativity, innovation, and engineering prowess, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) hosted the 2023 FIRST Lego League Northern Cape Provincial Robotics […]

Low-cost radio telescope brings new research and training opportunities for African scientists

Media Release – Wednesday 11 October 2023 Scientists and engineers from nine African countries, including South Africa, have converged at Rhodes University in Makhanda to share knowledge in building a […]

Watch: The MeerKAT radio telescope at a glance | How South Africa endeavours to become a global player in the knowledge economy

In the run up to the 15th BRICS Summit that was held in Johannesburg this week, the China Global Television Network (CGTN) filmed a feature on SARAO titled “Echoes of […]

The first data release from the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS)

The vast expanse of the observable universe is home to countless galaxies.  Many of these galaxies have supermassive black holes (SMBHs), which become active when gas infalling towards the black […]

MeerKAT Extension wins at CESA awards

Engineering Consultancy group Zutari was this week awarded the winner in the “Projects ranging between R50m to less than R250m” category for the SKA MeerKAT Extension project at the Consulting […]

South African Telescopes contribute to discovery of a new white dwarf pulsar

The discovery of a rare type of spinning white dwarf star in a binary star system – only the second one known –  provides a new understanding of the role […]

SARAO Chief Technologist honoured by Rhodes University

Professor Justin Jonas, Chief Technologist at SARAO and System Scientist at SKAO, delivered an inaugural lecture at Rhodes University, Makhanda after being bestowed with the inaugural esteemed Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Award […]

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

This year has seen the return of SARAO’s hosting of the Big Data Africa School after a pause of more than three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 4th […]

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

The SARAO Human Capital Development department launched the World Robotics Olympiad in the Northern Cape last month at Carnarvon High School. At the launch training was provided to educators where […]

MeerKAT discovers a distant galaxy has very large hydrogen atoms

While using the MeerKAT radio telescope to study a distant galaxy towards PKS 1830-211, scientists discovered something unexpected: gas clouds made up of some of the largest hydrogen atoms in […]