By Umamah Bakharia.
South Africa’s two premier astronomical tools, the Southern African Large Telescope (Salt) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will take centre stage at the 32nd General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Cape Town this week.
The event marks a pivotal time in the union’s over 100-year history — the first time it is being held in Africa with a fully open-access format, making it accessible globally.
Every three years, in collaboration with the union, members have the opportunity to make recommendations on scientific, administrative and financial matters that have broad and significant effects on the union and the astronomical community.
The assembly will vote on three resolutions that will be presented during the business sessions in Cape Town. The IAU Resolutions Committee has approved the proposals for the resolutions, which include one titled Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky, which looks at harmful interference by satellite constellations.
The other two resolutions revolve around the union’s ability to establish a standard Lunar Celestial Reference System and Lunar Coordinate Time and the establishment of a coordinated lunar time standard by international agreement.
Salt, in Sutherland, in the Northern Cape, is the largest single optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere and the SKA project is an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope.
The assembly is hosting over 2 000 international astronomers from 150 countries with over 3 000 abstracts — nearly 50% of the submissions made by early-career researchers and students.
“The abstracts cover a wide array of topics, with a notable emphasis on surveys and galactic astronomy as well as instruments such as the MeerKAT Radio Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope,” the assembly’s national organising committee chair, Kevin Govender said.
In honour of the event being hosted in South Africa, the SKA telescope will feature prominently at the assembly.
The SKA — under construction in the Northern Cape and in Australia — is predicted to be a game-changer for radio astronomy. It is more sensitive and faster than most radio telescopes and can produce images with high-resolution quality.
Its most profound potential is that it will expand the range of the universe and can answer important space-related questions.
SKA-Mid, an array of 197 traditional dish antennas, is being built in the Karoo region, while SKA-Low, an array of 131 072 smaller tree-like antennas, is being built in Western Australia. The arrays will both be spread across large distances, with the most distant antennas being separated by 150km in South Africa, and 74km in Australia.
“For the first time, participants will be able to take an immersive trip to the sites of the SKA telescopes in a gaming environment developed by SKACH, the Swiss consortium for the SKAO [Square Kilometre Array Observatory],” the observatory said in a statement.
Salt, known as “Africa’s Giant Eye on the Sky” will also be featured through mini-versions at the event.
Salt can detect the light from faint or distant objects in the universe, a billion times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye — as faint as a candle flame would appear at the distance of the moon.
“[The event] offers a unique chance for people from all over the world to connect with counterparts in Africa for education, outreach and research collaborations, “said the African Astronomical Society.
Hosted by the National Research Foundation and supported by the Department of Science and Innovation and the African Astronomical Society, the IAU General Assembly is taking place from 6 to 15 August 2024.