The agreement forming the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy has been renewed by the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape and the University of Pretoria for a period of five years. IDIA also welcomes a new partner in the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), who operates the MeerKAT telescope. IDIA is the main place … Read More
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Brad Frank in this position that will ensure that the research cloud is able to deliver on the needs of the astronomy research community, in particular for MeerKAT projects that are analysed on the ilifu facility. Dr. Frank first got involved with IDIA in 2016. Back then IDIA had just launched, … Read More
In this new paper, the observations of neutral hydrogen in the MIGHTEE survey conducted on the MeerKAT telescope are described. This particular project addresses 10 science questions, which shows the breadth of science that can be carried out thanks to the unique ability of MeerKAT to observe faint neutral hydrogen signals. Neutral Hydrogen, called HI (H – one) by astronomers, … Read More
The InspiringFifty SA Awards aims to recognise and the increase the visibility of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) who have advanced the STEM fields. InspiringFifty celebrates the diversity of the Top 50 women in STEM in South Africa thus publicly positioning these successful women as role models for the next generation of female leaders in their fields, … Read More
A new multi-wavelength analysis of 620 galaxies attempts to disentangle physical phenomena contributing to the galaxies brightness in radio waves. To properly understand the evolution of galaxies since the first galaxies I the early universe, we need to observe galaxies in different wavelengths, including visible light (optical), infrared, x-ray and radio. Each window of light “sees” different contributions to the … Read More
An SAAO Special Edition of NRF Science Matters Magazine Vol 3 Issue 3 was released by the National Research Foundation. This special edition of Science Matters focuses on the facilities, infrastructure and research themes through which South Africa punches well above its weight in the global Astronomy endeavour. The National Research Foundation hosts a variety of world-leading telescopes such as … Read More
In our continuing Science Engagement And Development Seminar series, we are excited to welcome Prof. Jean Greyling from Computing Sciences at Nelson Mandela University. He comes to tell us about his TANKS application and project. Touching the code – expanding learners’ career horizons. Abstract Software Development has been identified as one of the scarcest skills in South Africa (and most … Read More
The IDIA) Office of Development and Outreach located in the UWC’s Physics and Astronomy department is often running research and development projects for which we would like to employ students as research assistants through work-study. Loading…
As the scale of data and complexity of processing capabilities needed for scientific research grow, cloud computing is becoming the go-to technology to be able to handle the data and deploy scientific software pipelines. Research is also a global enterprise with large projects accumulating tens, sometimes hundreds of collaborators worldwide. It is therefore natural to seek to integrate the large … Read More
In the early universe, most matter as we know it was in the form of neutral hydrogen. Some of it is still lying around and is often seen because it absorbs light from galaxies further away, and obstructs our seeing. Neutral hydrogen was almost evenly distributed, but small differences in density were present. Mapping this neutral hydrogen, we are able … Read More
