Pretoria - Cabinet has welcomed the launch of the first MeerKAT antenna, which is due to take place at the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) core site in Carnarvon next week Thursday.
The launch will be officiated by President Jacob Zuma and Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom.
MeerKAT is the South African precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope, to be built in Africa and in Australia.
MeerKAT is predominantly a locally designed and built instrument, which demonstrates that South Africa can compete with the best when it comes to research, engineering, science and technology. It will constitute 25% of the SKA Phase 1.
The SKA Project is an international enterprise to build the largest radio telescope in the world, which will have a total collecting area of approximately one square kilometre. It will operate over a wide range of frequencies and its size will make it 50 times more sensitive than any other radio instrument. – SAnews.gov.za
