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More MeerKAT: Celebrating five years of operations, citizen science, and future horizons
from Contact 14
BY ALMA VIVIERS (SKAO)
In July 2023 the MeerKAT radio telescope celebrated five years of operations. This article reflects on its stellar achievements, how it engages citizen scientists, and the MeerKAT+ extension project.
Five years of MeerKAT observations
From giant radio galaxies to hydroxyl megamasers, MeerKAT has been delivering groundbreaking scientific observations since its inauguration in July 2018. In these five short years, unplanned discoveries are already emerging from the unprecedented amounts of data the telescope has collected.
In July 2023, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) celebrated this milestone.
“MeerKAT has not only transformed our understanding of celestial phenomena but is also become a testament to the collaborative spirit and creativity driving African innovation in radio astronomy,” said Pontsho Maruping, Managing Director of SARAO, expressing thanks to government and industry partners, academics, and of course the SARAO team.
To honour the release of its inaugural research paper, the MeerKAT@5 conference will be hosted by SARAO and the Department of Science and Innovation in February 2024, and promises to reflect on the telescope’s accomplishments not only in science but also engineering innovation and human capacity development.
Bursts from Space project
This anniversary also marks the start of a new era for the world-class facility, which will make some of the collected data accessible to the general public. Employing Zooniverse, the world’s largest people-powered research platform, a research team from the University of Oxford aims to harness the collective effort of volunteers worldwide to make discoveries and contribute valuable datasets to the research community. The “Bursts from Space” citizen science project, powered by MeerKAT’s ThunderKAT survey, invites members of the public to scrutinise radio sources for potential transients and variables.
While machines assist in this endeavour, human eyes have proven invaluable. By presenting both images and light curves, volunteers recognise subtle patterns and contribute nuanced understanding, to distinguish between genuine astrophysical phenomena and artifacts or anomalies introduced during the data processing pipeline. Currently there are 1,082 volunteers and more than 200,000 classifications have been done.
MeerKAT+ and its progress
The MeerKAT extension project, or MeerKAT+, spearheaded by SARAO in partnership with the Germany’s Max Planck Society and Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics, is poised to elevate the telescope’s scientific capabilities. This extension involves the addition of up to 20 new dishes. Notably, the increased distance between dishes, from 8 km to 17 km, promises heightened observation sensitivity and sharper radio images.
The MeerKAT+ project, initiated in 2019, is currently under construction on-site in the Karoo, with integration and science commissioning slated for early 2025. Ultimately, the extension will be integrated into SKA-Mid, making up part of the 197-dish array.
