February 2015 Quarterly newsletter for South Africa’s Square Kilometre Array project One of two MeerKAT dishes in the Karoo. Dr Bernie Fanaroff: HERA questions how we Shared Sky now under Max Planck Society invests handing over the reins came to be African skies €11 million in SKA 02 08 20 22 ska general ska general FOREWORD BY DR BERNIE FANAROFF A PLACE OF WORLD-LEA DING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PROFESSOR NITHAYA We are rapidly moving forward with the The core of the telescope will be in the The SKA itself will be built in two phases. our best young people into science and very fast and flexible processing boards process of building the biggest telescope Karoo, near the town of Carnarvon. The The design for SKA1 (the first phase) is being technology and to create expertise and and tools. The biggest spin-off, however, CHETTY APPOINTED in the world, located in South Africa and Department of Science and Technology developed by international consortia (in know-how in our industry and universities will be in big data. The SKA will produce AS DEPUTY CEO: eight other African countries, with part (DST) and the National Research which the SKA SA and South African industry in technologies that will have very wide more data much faster than the entire ASTRONOMY in Australia. The Square Kilometre Array Foundation (NRF) established a green play a leading role) and will be completed in application and will be crucial in the internet and is therefore of great interest radio telescope (SKA) will be the largest field site for the telescope that is now fully 2016. Construction is expected to begin in coming decades. The DST has funded to the multinational ICT corporations, with The National Research Foundation instrument ever built. It will be built by provided with infrastructure – power lines, 2018 and be completed by 2022, when the the SKA SA Human Capital Development whom the SKA SA project office has active (NRF) has recently appointed Professor the SKA Organisation, an international a very fast optical fibre connection to the MeerKAT will be integrated into the SKA1. programme, which has awarded 680 collaboration programmes. Big data and Nithaya Chetty as Deputy CEO: organisation comprised of eleven national network, specially constructed This first phase will consist of three arrays grants since 2005. It supports six research the Internet of Everything constitute an Astronomy on a five-year fixed contract. countries, with several others in the buildings, roads and accommodation. The – 190 additional dishes in the Karoo, making chairs in our universities and students entirely new, global industry which has been Professor Chetty is responsible for: process of joining. The SKA will dominate site is protected from radio interference 254 in all (including the MeerKAT), with a low ranging from artisan studies in the FET predicted to be worth trillions of dollars l Implementing and co-ordinating the radio astronomy for a very long time and (which would make the telescope blind) by frequency array in Western Australia and colleges through first degrees in physics, within a fairly short time. We are building national strategy for astronomy and is expected to produce transformational regulations promulgated in terms of the 60 additional dishes to add onto Australia’s engineering and technical studies to MSc, on the expertise and skills being developed related future national investments. science – that is science that changes Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act. precursor telescope of 36 dishes. The PhD and post-doctoral positions. Already for the MeerKAT and SKA to develop the l Overseeing the astronomy national our understanding of the universe (and A team of South African scientists and construction cost of the whole of the SKA1 51 PhDs and 110 MSc students have Big Data Africa programme, which will facilities and the SKA-SA project within the NRF, ensuring their synergistic produces Nobel Prizes). engineers in the SKA South Africa Project has been capped at €650 million by the Board graduated. The graduation rate throughout contribute to positioning South Africa and Office has designed and is building the of the SKA Organisation. the programme is much more than double Africa to be leading players in the big data interactions as well as the transfer of world-leading MeerKAT telescope on the SKA2 will consist of three arrays: about the national average and a pipeline has industry by 2020. The UK and China have best practice among them, the rest site. It will consist of 64 dish antennas, 2,500 dishes, most of them in the Karoo, been created to bring especially black already announced multi-billion Rand of the NRF and other elements of the each 13.5 metres in diameter, so that with many others in the rest of South students and women students from investments in SKA processing technologies National System of Innovation (NSI). each antenna stands about four stories Africa and in our eight African partner undergraduate studies to PhD and post- in order to develop their big data capacity, l Developing synergies between the high. They will be distributed over 10km countries, all connected by optical fibre doctoral studies. Our aim is to ensure that and other countries are doing the same. astronomy facilities, universities and and are connected by buried power lines networks to the central computing facility African scientists win Nobel Prizes in Africa South Africa is not behind – this is an science councils, and the astronomy and optical fibre connections to very fast in South Africa; a number of very innovative with the MeerKAT and SKA. industry in which we will not have to catch community at large, to address the computers in the underground Karoo Array Aperture Arrays, which are very large radio Some of the innovative technologies up, so we can move to a leading position if country’s transformation imperatives Processor Building (KAPB) on site. There “fish eye lenses”, to be built in the Karoo; developed for the MeerKAT telescope are we act quickly and decisively as a nation. in terms of skilled resources and is intense interest from the international and a large low-frequency array of up to now being commercialised, such as the research capacity. astronomy community in the MeerKAT and a million “Christmas tree” antennas to l Playing a key role in creating a teams including South African scientists be built in Western Australia. The design national long range planning culture and more than 300 international scientists of SKA2 will be started in 2018 and it will for multi-wavelength astronomy have been allocated observing time. The probably be built from 2023 onward. SKA SA GETS A NEW LEAD STAR infrastructure and equipment. l Promoting public awareness through MeerKAT will begin “early science” in 2016 The SKA will operate for 50 years. It Previous Director General of spearheaded the project in its early days appropriate outreach initiatives. and its full science programme in 2017. will make South Africa a world-centre for the Department of Science and when he was Director General at the l Liaising with international partners, Other countries are already investing in the astronomy – this is in fact already the case, Technology, Dr Rob Adam, will be Department of Science and Technology boards, and other major international MeerKAT, which will be the most sensitive with senior and junior researchers from taking over the role of SKA SA Project (DST), and currently provides advice and facilities. radio telescope in the world until the SKA around the world re-locating to South Africa Director from Dr Bernie Fanaroff later leadership as the chairperson of the Professor Chetty is a member of the is built. A seven-dish array, the KAT-7, because of our growing reputation and in the year. South African SKA steering committee. Academy of Science of South Africa and has been built on the site as a prototype. the promise of the MeerKAT. The SKA has Known for his work on systems and He leaves his position as group is an honorary member of the South Although it was intended as an engineering already begun to change the way the world institutions of science, technology and executive of nuclear at the Aveng Group, African Institute of Physics. He has also test bed, it has worked so well that it is in looks at us – as a place where world-leading innovation, nuclear and has previously served served as the President of the South demand by scientists for their observations science and technology can be done. physicist, Dr Adam, as CEO of the South African Institute of Physics. He received and is producing important science. The SKA project is being used to bring will be taking on a new African Nuclear Energy the NRF President’s Award in 1997 and role at the SKA SA as Corporation. He was is a two-time recipient of the American “Director Designate” Director General of the Fulbright Fellowship. from 1 April, and Project The SKA will dominate radio astronomy for a very long time and is DST from 1999 to 2006. Professor Chetty was a full professor Director form the end of Dr Bernie Fanaroff will of Physics at the University of Pretoria expected to produce transformational science – that is science that the year. act as strategic advisor and has been on secondment on a part- Dr Adam is no changes our understanding of the universe. on the project until time basis to the NRF in the position of stranger to the SKA. He December 2017. Group Executive: Astronomy since 2011. 2 SKA NEWS | February 2015 SKA NEWS | February 2015 3 ska general ska general THE WORLD OF THE SKA KAT-7: The Square Kilometre Array is a global science and engineering project to build the A MeerKAT PROTOTYPE world’s largest radio telescope.