In a week full of meetings and collaborations, South Africa hosted the Meerkat@5 International Radio Astronomy Conference at the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies in Cape Town, organized by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO).
Italian participation was remarkable, with the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) playing a leading role in the Meerkat+ project and in the Square Kilometer Array Telescope (SKA).
The Meerkat+ project constitutes one third of the whole SKA project, which aims at building the largest radio telescope in the world, with a collection area of one square kilometer, promising unprecedented discoveries about the universe.
The MeerKAT radio telescope, located in the Karoo desert, 600 km from Cape Town in South Africa, consists of 64 satellite dishes and makes up about a third of the SKA project. Meerkat explores the universe on radio frequency, allowing scientists to study cosmic phenomena such as black holes, quasars, and gravitational waves.
Italy, through the INAF, has contributed with an investment of 6 million euros for the installation of 14 additional antennas, which will be delivered and installed by the end of 2024 and operational by 2025.
The Italian Ambassador to South Africa, Alberto Vecchi, hosted an evening meeting between the Italian scientific community and South African researchers involved in bilateral activities. During the meeting, the Ambassador underlined the joint commitments between Italy and South Africa and the importance of the continuous support of INAF.
The Scientific Director of INAF, Filippo Maria Zerbi, stressed the importance of this diplomatic-scientific collaboration between Italy and South Africa, especially in the field of radio astronomy.
Next Steps
2024 represents not only the 5th anniversary of the activation of the 64 antennas of the Meerkat radio telescope, but also an important year as the general assembly of the international astronomical society will be held in Cape Town, for the first time hosted on the African continent. The next world conference will be held in 2027 in Rome underlining the importance in terms of bilateral collaboration.
Mobility and Training
In the margins of the congress activities, an agreement was signed for the training and mobility of researchers between the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) and SARAO, with an investment of 350,000 euros by INAF.
