1,300 Galaxies In First Super Telescope Image

South Africa's new MeerKAT radio telescope has found 1,300 galaxies in a tiny corner of the universe where only 70 were known to before.

The first image was produced by MeerKAT, which is based nearly 400 miles north of Cape Town, despite only 16 of the site's 64 planned dishes being activated.

When all the receptors are working it will form part of the multi-national Square Kilometer Array (SKA), which will become the world's most powerful radio telescope.

Fernando Camilo of SKA said even at current capacity MeerKAT "is already the best radio telescope in the southern hemisphere".

When SKA is up-and-running in the 2020s there will be 3,000 dishes across several countries peering deep into space.

The image produced on Saturday shows less than 0.01 percent of the entire celestial sphere.

SKA will have a discovery potential 10,000 times greater than the most advanced modern instruments and will explore exploding stars, black holes, dark energy and traces of the universe's origins some 14 billion years ago.

MeerKAT will be one of the two main dish clusters for SKA, with the other in Australia.

South African Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor said: "It's a first for us as Africa and also it's a first for the world because the world hasn't done this in Africa. 

"We are building a global infrastructure for the world."

Follow The Forefront on:

 > facebook Global audience 

 > facebook Nigerian audience  
 > The Forefront on Twitter
 >BBM Channel: C002CB006 {WELCOME TO THE FOREFRONT}
 >{Instagram: the_forefront_nigeria }

 Connect with Joshua Osagie (Blog owner) 
 >  facebook personal account 
 > facebook  (fan page) 

 > twitter

 > Instagram: osagiejoshua

Share this post with others on social media with options below.