First RTA lecture for 2005 announced

The first lecture for 2005 in the South African Radio League Radio Technology in Action programme will be held at the National Amateur Radio Centre on Saturday 12 February. The guest speaker will be Prof Justin Jonas of the Rhodes University. He will talk about the Square Kilometre Array. This fascinating lecture will start at 10:00.

Radio telescopes allow us to observe cosmic objects at great distances from our vantage point here on Earth. For astrophysical and technical reasons, radio telescopes are better suited to studying the distant cosmos than the more familiar optical telescopes. Because we see distant objects as they were many billions of years ago, we can piece together an evolutionary history of the universe by observing objects at different distances. This process is very similar to an archaeology or palaeontology “dig”.

“In particular, we hope to discover how the universe evolved from the featureless cloud of hot gas left over from the Big Bang into the diverse environment of galaxies, stars and planets that it is today. To dig deeper into our universe’s history – into the so-called Dark Ages – we need to construct a massive new radio telescope. This telescope, dubbed the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), is currently being designed and may be located in South Africa”, Prof Jonas told SARL News.

The RTA lecture will describe the scientific opportunities and technical challenges that characterize the SKA project, with particular emphasis on the South African perspective

Courtesy of The South African Radio League

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