Photographer Enrico Sacchetti
THIS dramatic photo shows the test bed for the world’s largest, most powerful radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The dishes are part of the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, a precursor to the SKA project that will be built in South Africa and Australia from 2020. The first SKA antenna prototype (below) was installed earlier this year.
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MeerKAT consists of 64 interlinked antennas and can detect synchrotron radiation, radio waves generated when charged particles travel at near-light speed. The telescope is so sensitive to electromagnetic radiation that photographer Enrico Sacchetti’s camera had to be tested before he went on-site.
“I asked if I could take a drone or hire a helicopter. They said, ‘No way!’!” says Sacchetti. Instead, he hiked up a nearby hill. He was about to give up, but then the sun came out.
Astronomers using MeerKAT have already discovered two huge bubbles of high-energy particles protruding from the area surrounding the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole. Even the precursor to the SKA is producing unprecedented images.
