South Africa is consolidating its radio astronomy facilities into a single institution, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO). This was revealed on Friday when Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor announced that the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) had been deprived of its status as a National Research Facility, under the National Research Foundation (NRF), while, at the same time, the new SARAO had been declared a National Research Facility in its place.
“SARAO will operate as a hub for radio astronomy, reinforcing South Africa’s position as a key player in this field,” affirmed NRF CEO Dr Molapo Qhobela. “In addition, this will allow for the skills that already exist within the radio astronomy projects such as MeerKAT and AVN [African Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network] to be deployed as required, making the system more resource efficient.”
The new observatory will incorporate HartRAO and all the activities and instruments of Square Kilometre Array South Africa (SKA SA). These include human capital development and commercialisation programmes, the MeerKAT radio telescope array and the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7). SARAO will be responsible for carrying out the country’s radio astronomy construction and research programme.
Source: www.engineeringnews.co.za
South Africa consolidates its radio astronomy activities into new observatory