SARAO Science

SARAO (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory) is the national radio astronomy facility of South Africa. It operates and manages radio telescopes, including MeerKAT and the South African Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. SARAO is involved in a range of scientific research areas, including:

Galactic and Extragalactic Astronomy: Studying the structure, formation, and evolution of galaxies and other celestial objects.
Pulsar Research: Observing and understanding pulsars, which are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars.
Cosmology: Investigating the large-scale structure of the universe, dark matter, and dark energy.
Transient Astronomy: Detecting and studying transient astronomical events such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and fast radio bursts.
Solar System Studies: Observing objects within our solar system, including the sun, planets, and smaller bodies like asteroids and comets.

SARAO’s instruments, particularly MeerKAT, provide astronomers with highly sensitive data, enabling groundbreaking research and discoveries across these various fields of astronomy.

MeerKAT Digitiser

MeerKAT Digitiser

Commercialisation Technologies Telescopes and Instruments – Share
The Digitiser is the sub-system of the MeerKAT telescope which is responsible for converting the signals received from outer space into a digital format that can be manipulated by digital processing platforms such as computers and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs)
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Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Re-ionisation project (PAPER)

Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Re-ionisation project (PAPER)

Telescopes and Instruments – Share
The primary goal of PAPER is to detect emission from the neutral gas that pervaded the universe before the first galaxies and black holes were formed. This ‘epoch of reionization’, as it is called, is the last frontier in observational cosmology.
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Geodesy Programme

Geodesy Programme

Projects Telescopes and Instruments – Share
Geodesy, also called geodetics, a branch of earth sciences, is the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth, including its gravitational field, in a three-dimensional time-varying space. Geodesists also study geodynamical phenomena such as crustal motion, tides, and polar motion.
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C-BASS C-Band All Sky Survey project

C-BASS C-Band All Sky Survey project

Telescopes and Instruments – Share
C-BASS is a project to map the sky in microwave (short-wavelength radio) radiation.
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Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen (REACH)

Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen (REACH)

Losberg Northern Cape Telescopes and Instruments – Share
The Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen (REACH) is a collaboration between the University of Cambridge, UK, and Stellenbosch University, South Africa. REACH’s goal is to detect the global cosmic dawn hydrogen signal using a single dipole antenna to sample a large area of sky at low frequencies, and hence a large volume of the early Universe. It is primarily funded by the Kavli Foundation and Stellenbosch University. Deployment to the Karoo site...
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VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS)

VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS)

Hartebeesthoek Johannesburg Observatory Telescopes and Instruments – Share
The International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS) has been developing the next generation of VLBI system - VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS). They have identified the need for modern, fast slewing, broadband radio telescopes to realise the goal of improving accuracy by a factor of 10 - from 1 cm down to 1 mm - across global baselines.
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The South African National Ventilator Project (NVP)

The South African National Ventilator Project (NVP)

Projects Telescopes and Instruments – Share
The South African National Ventilator Project (NVP) is a co-ordinated national effort in response to the Covid-19 pandemic involving the local design and manufacture of breathing apparatus devices used in patient treatment. Read more
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South Africa’s HIRAX telescope driving industry engagements

South Africa’s HIRAX telescope driving industry engagements

Hartebeesthoek Johannesburg Observatory Telescopes and Instruments – Share
The Hydrogen and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX), led out of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), has deployed two new prototype telescope dish designs, one aluminium and the other fibreglass, at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) Hartebeesthoek in Gauteng. The fibreglass dish was designed and manufactured by MMS Technology in Pretoria, and the aluminium dish was designed and manufactured through a partnership between NJV Consulting and Rebcon in Durban. Funding for the HIRAX prototype...
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Transient Array Radio Telescope (TART)

Transient Array Radio Telescope (TART)

Hartebeesthoek Johannesburg Observatory Telescopes and Instruments – Share
TART is a 24-element imaging radio telescope. The TART is a 24-element synthesis array radio-telescope. It observes the entire sky continuously and is optimized to detect transient events, including satellites, near-earth objects and high-energy cosmic rays. The telescope is also designed to serve as a platform for the development of new imaging algorithms. The TART telescope is an open source project. Development is hosted on github. The fully assembled TART spiral antenna array is located...
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SKA-MPI

SKA-MPI

Losberg Northern Cape Telescopes and Instruments – Share
SKA-MPI is one of two prototype SKA dishes and funded by the German Max-Planck Society. It was built at the SARAO site in the Karoo. It has been used for early verification of the hardware and to support development of the SKA dishes. It is now being used to do a single-dish science programme.
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Hydrogen Epoch of Reionisation Array radio telescope (HERA)

Hydrogen Epoch of Reionisation Array radio telescope (HERA)

Telescopes and Instruments – Share
To solve the mystery of how we came to be where we are, astronomers must look back in time to a transitional period of cosmic history that has been dubbed the “epoch of reionisation”.
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KAT-7 Telescopes

KAT-7 Telescopes

Telescopes and Instruments – Share
The seven-dish MeerKAT precursor array, KAT-7, is the world’s first radio telescope array consisting of composite antenna structures.
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The SARAO Users Committee is established in order to advise the SARAO Managing Director and staff on all aspects of SARAO activities that affect the users and potential users of its facilities.

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Did you know?

Building the SKA will require the development of cutting edge technology and innovation, including the design of the world’s fastest supercomputers to process data at rates greater than the current global internet traffic.

The SKA will use thousands of radio antennas, with different antenna technologies. This will enable astronomers to probe the universe in unprecedented detail. The SKA will also be able to survey the entire sky much faster than any radio astronomy facility currently in existence.