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South Africa: South African Telescope Discovers a Giant Galaxy That's 32 Times Bigger Than Earth's
The Conversation Africa, 26 January 2025
You may not know it, but right now there's a huge cosmic rave party happening far, far above our heads. The chief party goers are known as supermassive black holes. These… Read more »
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South Africa: UCT and Meerkat Make Giant Strides in Unveiling Mysteries of the Universe
UCT, 6 December 2024
By harnessing the extraordinary capabilities of South Africa's world-renowned MeerKAT radio telescope, scientists at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in partnership with the South… Read more »
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Africa: To Map the Vibration of the Universe, Astronomers Built a Detector the Size of the Galaxy
The Conversation Africa, 2 December 2024
Using the largest gravitational wave detector ever made, we have confirmed earlier reports that the fabric of the universe is constantly vibrating. This background rumble is likely… Read more »
South African Telescope Locates Galaxy 32 Times Bigger Than Earth
South Africa's MeerKAT telescope has identified a massive new radio galaxy, nicknamed Inkathazo, which translates to 'trouble' in both Xhosa and Zulu, due to the difficulty in understanding the physics behind this discovery. The cosmic megastructure measures 3.3 million light-years, 32 times the size of our Milky Way galaxy, and is 1.44 billion light-years away from Earth.
Giant radio galaxies, or GRGs, are rare cosmic behemoths emitting millions of light-years jets of hot plasma across intergalactic space. The plasma jets, visible at radio frequencies, are powered by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies.
The MeerKAT telescope is located in the Karoo region of South Africa, consists of 64 radio dishes, and is operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory. MeerKAT has already been pivotal in uncovering some of the hidden treasures of the southern sky since it was commissioned in 2018.
InFocus
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The MeerKAT radio telescope, located in the province of the Northern Cape, has produced a remarkable image showing a combination of cosmic features never before seen, revealing ... Read more »
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Two giant radio galaxies have been discovered with South Africa's powerful MeerKAT telescope, located in the Karoo region, a semi-arid area in the south-west of the country. Radio ... Read more »
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Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Blade Nzimande, has announced that 20 additional dishes will be allocated to the MeerKAT radio telescope array. The project, a ... Read more »
The newly discovered giant radio galaxy ‘Inkathazo’. The glowing plasma jets, as seen by the MeerKAT telescope, are shown in red and yellow. The starlight from other surrounding galaxies can be seen in the background.
