Canada’s partnership in the world’s largest radio telescope, located in South Africa and Australia, creates new opportunities for research, but the benefits go beyond astronomy.
To the ǀXam and San people, being in the world as a person includes “the sky’s things” - an understanding of and deep connection with the cosmos.
SAURON: radio intensity (purple) from MeerKAT overlaid on an optical image from the Dark Energy Survey.
Michelle Lochner / The Dark Energy Survey Collaboration 2005
A new 3D film follows two children as they discover the astrophysical story of the universe and Yamaji stories of the sky and land. Making it was an extraordinary cross-cultural experience.
MeerKAT, the precursor to the massive Square Kilometre Array, allows astronomers to gather huge amounts of data about galaxies.
Photo by Jaco Marais/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Fangxia An, Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy
Technology is allowing astronomers to study and analyse galaxies in far more detail than was previously possible.
Some of the dishes that make up the Square Kilometre Array’s radio telescope system. This kind of “blue skies” research can have great real-world value.
MUJAHID SAFODIEN/AFP via Getty Images
Vanessa McBride, International Astronomical Union's Office of Astronomy for Development
The pandemic has underscored that the world requires agility for survival. That makes blue skies science, which encourages curiosity and nimble thinking, perhaps more important than ever.
The federal budget contains money for big-ticket items like the SKA telescope and mRNA vaccines. But dwindling funds for universities and fundamental science will leave us vulnerable to future problems.
The Southern African Large Telescope has been a key part of South Africa’s astronomical contributions.
SAAO
Cape astronomers were responsible for, among other things, the first measurement of the distance to a star; the first photographic sky survey and the accurate measurement of the distance to the sun.