{"id":6130,"date":"2011-12-15T00:19:04","date_gmt":"2011-12-14T22:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/12\/south-africa-desert-town-battles-for-radio-telescope\/"},"modified":"2011-12-15T00:19:04","modified_gmt":"2011-12-14T22:19:04","slug":"south-africa-desert-town-battles-for-radio-telescope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/south-africa-desert-town-battles-for-radio-telescope\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa desert town battles for radio telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Wendell Roelf<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">CARNARVON, South Africa<\/span> Dec 14 (Reuters) &#8211; The<br \/>\noccasional sheep seeks respite from a sun that has scorched<br \/>\nrocks black in this semi-desert region that South Africa hopes<br \/>\nwill host the world&#8217;s most powerful radio telescope.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Chosen because of its remoteness, with hills providing an<br \/>\nextra shield against radio interference, the Carnarvon area<br \/>\ncould emerge as the African base for a telescope 50 times more<br \/>\nsensitive and 10,000 times faster than any in existence.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Africa is competing against Australia for the right to host<br \/>\nthe 2 billion euro ($2.62 billion) Square Kilometre Array (SKA)<br \/>\ntelescope, and its antennas and other receptors will extend in a<br \/>\npin-wheel design for 3,000 square kms (1,200 square miles).<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Its centre must be in as remote a place as possible, free<br \/>\nfrom electronic signals, and that is why Carnarvon, about 450 km<br \/>\nnortheast of Cape Town, is the site of a pilot project.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The SKA project, funded by a variety of countries and<br \/>\nresearch institutions, is expected to come on line in 2023 and a<br \/>\ndecision is expected in February on whether Africa or<br \/>\nAustralia-New Zealand will be the site of the one of the world&#8217;s<br \/>\nbiggest scientific construction projects.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are not many opportunities to serve as this kind of<br \/>\ncatalytic agent to catapult South Africa and the continent into<br \/>\nthe league of a serious scientific player,&#8221; Deputy Science<br \/>\nMinister Derek Hanekom told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>BOOST FOR AFRICA<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>South Africa already hosts the Southern African Large<br \/>\nTelescope, the largest of its sort in the southern hemisphere.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Wendell Roelf CARNARVON, South Africa Dec 14 (Reuters) &#8211; The occasional sheep seeks respite from a sun that has scorched rocks black in this semi-desert region that South Africa hopes will host the world&#8217;s most powerful radio telescope. Chosen because of its remoteness, with hills providing an extra shield against radio interference, the Carnarvon [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-6130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}