South Africa's Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, and the President of Germany's Max Planck Society (MPG), Prof. Dr Martin Stratmann,today announced that the MPG and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn will make a total of €11 million available for the building and installation of radio receivers on the South African MeerKAT radio telescope.
The receivers will be built by the MPIfR and will operate in the S band of radio frequencies. They will be used primarily for research at the cutting edge of global astronomy on pulsars, the rapidly spinning neutron stars that emit very regular radio pulses and can therefore be used as highly accurate clocks to test extreme physics. Two other sets of receivers, for the L band and ultra-low frequency band, are already under construction in South Africa.
The President of the MPG said: "We consider the MeerKAT to be an important undertaking, as it is not only a pre-eminent astronomy project, but also a lighthouse project for science in Africa in general. The MPG is very pleased to enable close collaboration between its scientists and the South African community, and looks forward to seeing MeerKAT's first glimpse of the Universe through the MPIfR's receivers.
Minister Pandor welcomed the strong and growing collaboration between South Africa and Germany, saying that the MPG investment was an endorsement of the excellence of the MeerKAT and the South African team that designed and is building it.
South Africa and Germany have a vibrant science and technology partnership, with radio astronomy fast becoming a flagship area of cooperation, as evidenced by huge interest in academic and industrial cooperation on both sides.
Minister Pandor stated that: "The MeerKAT is already acclaimed internationally as a world-class instrument; thanks to our partnership with Max Planck, the MeerKAT's ability to perform transformational science for the benefit of global knowledge production will be considerably boosted. Awaiting the start of construction of the Square Kilometre Array, South Africa and international partners such as Max Planck continue to set the pace for global radio astronomy."
MeerKAT will be the most sensitive centimetre-wave radio telescope in the world until the SKA is built. It is expected to do transformational science in astronomy.
Enquiries:
Lorenzo Raynard
Communication Manager: SKA SA
Cell: 071 454 0658
E-mail: lorenzo@ska.ac.za
Lunga Ngqengelele
Media Liaison Officer: Ministry of Science and Technology
Cell: 082 566 0446
E-mail: Lunga.Ngqengelele@dst.gov.za
