Australia and South Africa will share hosting of a giant radio telescope made up of thousands of separate dishes and intended to help scientists figure out the make-up of the universe, the international consortium overseeing the project announced.
South Africa led an African consortium that included Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia, and telescopes will be erected in all its partners. In South Africa, dishes will be added to a remote site in the arid Karoo, where a smaller radio telescope project already is underway.
South Africa and Australia, which partnered with New Zealand in bidding for the project, had competed fiercely. South Africa claimed victory on Friday, saying it got two of the projects three major components.
Photo: EPA
“We may feel slightly disappointed that we didn’t get the whole thing. But I think one should emphasize that we did get most of it,” said Justin Jonas, chief South African scientist on the project. “Two-thirds of the biggest instrument in the world is still the biggest instrument in the world,” he added.
South African Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor and scientists who had prepared the country’s bid celebrated with an Africa-shaped cake at a news conference in Pretoria.
“This marks a real turning point in Africa, where we are becoming a destination for science and engineering, and not just a place where there are resources and tourism opportunities,” Jonas added.
Australia also welcomed the split decision.
“It is an outstanding result for the Australia-New Zealand bid after many years of preparation and an intensive international process,” Australian Minister for Science and Research Senator Chris Evans said.
The Square Kilometer Array telescope will be 50 times more sensitive and scan the sky 10,000 times faster than any existing telescope. It requires huge open spaces with very few humans.
John Womersley, chair of the consortium’s board, said the telescope will help scientists answer key questions: “Where do we come from? Where are we going? What is this universe we live in?”
“We don’t understand what 96 percent of our universe is made of,” he said.
The organization said dividing construction of the telescope will “maximize on investments already made by both Australia and South Africa.”
Womersley said that splitting construction between the two nations will likely add around 10 percent to the 350 million euro (US$439 million) cost of the first phase of building the giant telescope. However, he said there would be a payoff for astronomers.
“It delivers more science in phase one. The capabilities of this instrument are greater than the original design,” Womersley said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in