Sally

Press Release! MeerKAT discovers record-breaking cosmic laser halfway across the universe

by

UP/IDIA researchers open a new frontier enabled by MeerKAT and IDIA’s advanced compute infrastructure and support Astronomers using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa have discovered the most distant hydroxyl megamaser ever detected. It is located in a violently merging galaxy more than 8 billion light-years away, opening a new radio astronomy frontier. Hydroxyl megamasers are natural “space lasers” … Read More

SENIOR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR

by

UPDATE: Position has now been filled. IDIA is seeking an experienced systems administrator to join a team that works on supporting OpenStack cloud systems for use by IDIA researchers. Experience working with big data projects in areas such as Astronomy, High Energy Physics, Omics or Earth Observation Science will be an asset. The systems administrator will work closely with the IDIA systems … Read More

Congratulations to IDIA project manager Kechil Kirkham on her 1000th episode!

by

Kechil Kirkham, Project Manager of IDIA, has several strings to her bow. One of them is Looking Up, a radio programme and podcast with Cape Town radio station Fine Music Radio. On 1 October 2025 the 1,000th show will be broadcast. Looking Up is a weekly 5-minute programme covering space and astronomy, which now reaches a quarter of million people … Read More

NEW DATA RELEASE! Unveiling the Deep Radio Sky with the superMIGHTEE Project

by

A major milestone has been reached with the first data release from the superMIGHTEE project, combining observations from the MIGHTEE Survey using South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope and India’s upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT). This telescope combination offers the most sensitive and scientifically powerful images of deep-sky radio emission before the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) becomes operational. The new dataset … Read More

PRESS RELEASE! Early star-forming galaxies at cosmic noon were highly magnetized and too windy (engulfed by halos of high-energy cosmic rays)

by

A team of astronomers, led by the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences-IPM (IPM) and including scientists from the Inter-university Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) and the University of Oxford, has studied a sample of distant galaxies by means of their radio emission, observed with the MeerKAT radio telescope — a precursor to what will become the world’s largest … Read More

SOFTWARE RELEASE! CARTA release v5.0

by

A new release of CARTA is out: this is the stable v5.0 release, following the related beta release in February 2025. Like the beta release, this contains the new major features: channel map view and an RGB colour blender. There have been many bug fixes and enhancements, as well as substantial code refactoring since the previous release. For more details please see … Read More

SOFTWARE RELEASE! CARTA v5-beta

by

A new release of CARTA is out: v5-beta. This contains several new major features, along with bug fixes and enhancements. The new features include a channel map view and an RGB colour blender. CARTA is a major visualisation tool used by thousands of astronomers worldwide, architected for use with big data sets. In its current form, CARTA has been under development since the start of 2018 … Read More

PRESS RELEASE! IDIA helps UP-led astronomy research team to explore the formation of giant radio galaxies

by

Using the supercomputing power provided by IDIA facilities and groundbreaking observations from new-generation radio telescopes such as MeerKAT, an international research team, led by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Gourab Giri and other researchers at the University of Pretoria (UP), has made a breakthrough in understanding the formation and evolution of giant radio galaxies. These cosmic behemoths, resembling massive fountains of superheated … Read More

PRESS RELEASE! The Age of Giants: IDIA helps MeerKAT to identify a troublesome cosmic beast

by

With the help of IDIA facilities, South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope has uncovered an extraordinary new giant radio galaxy nicknamed ‘Inkathazo‘, meaning ‘trouble’ in the African Xhosa and Zulu languages. This discovery sheds light on the evolution of the largest structures in the Universe and offers new, yet confusing, insights into their mysterious origins.  The work has been published in the … Read More

CALLING ALL ilifu USERS! ilifu Astronomy User Survey 2024

by

We are pleased to invite you to complete our ilifu Astronomy User Survey 2024! We strive to provide the best service to our users, especially in light of the many amazing MeerKAT science projects that have a home at IDIA. It is crucial that we have feedback from our user community, and this survey will help us to ensure that … Read More