A vast new telescope array in South Africa has just repay its sensational first look-alike , give us a glimpse into the remote creation . CalledMeerKAT , this radio scope regalia currently has 16 dishes spread out in the Northern Cape . Eventually , this will be upgraded to 64 dishes .
But this is all just a precursor to the much larger Square Kilometre Array ( SKA ) , which will finally use an incredible 2,000 saucer across 3,000 kilometers ( 1,870 miles ) in Southern Africa by 2030 , and a further half a million antennas in Australia , to peer into the cosmos .
For MeerKAT , this first image revealed 1,300 galaxies in a section of the nighttime sky where only 70 galaxies had been spot before . Each of the dishes receive light from the distant Galax urceolata and focuses them into their recipient .
Some of the galaxy , like one experience 200 million clear - years away , are in the process of vivid star formation , with atomic number 1 gas being used up to create Modern stellar physical object . Others unveil powerful smutty holes firing two visible jets of electrons at close to the f number of light in either direction .
On the rightfulness are galaxy with big black trap at their centre . Bottom left is a Galax urceolata going through intense star formation . MeerKAT
“ South Africa has already demonstrated its excellent science and engineering skill by designing and build MeerKAT , ” say Naledi Pandor , South Africa Minister of Science and Technology , in astatement . “ This telescope , which is preponderantly a topically contrive and build instrument , shows the existence that South Africa can contend in external enquiry , engineering , technology , and science . ”
MeerKAT is funded by the South African Government and by 2017 it will be up to its full complement of 64 dishes , each measuring 13.5 meters ( 45 feet ) across . More dish equals a good resolving power , so expect more images of upstage galaxy like this in the good future .
