Qualla: MeerKAT https://qualla.com/meerkat en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/x/1/meerkat-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: MeerKAT https://qualla.com/meerkat MeerKAT: Introduction https://qualla.com/meerkat/ Photo credit Morganoshell, CC BY-SA 4.0. The name is a pun. MeerKAT started life as the Karoo Array Telescope, but when the South African government quadrupled its budget from 20 dishes to 64, someone realized that "more of KAT" -- MeerKAT -- also happened to be the name of the small desert mammals that pop up from burrows across the Karoo. The telescope, like its namesake, stands alert in the desert, watching for things most instruments cannot see.

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Image: Morganoshell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/x/1/meerkat-wp/k6x1-meerkat-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full MeerKAT: Built in South Africa, for the World https://qualla.com/meerkat/ Photo credit R.de Bear, CC BY-SA 4.0. MeerKAT was designed and largely built by South African engineers and industries. The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory oversaw a project that used nearly 5,000 cubic meters of concrete and 570 tonnes of steel to anchor 64 antenna foundations into the Karoo bedrock. Const...

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Image: R.de Bear | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/x/1/meerkat-wp/k6x1-meerkat-built-in-south-africa-for-the-world.mp3 0:06 2 full MeerKAT: The Architecture of Listening https://qualla.com/meerkat/ Photo credit Morganoshell, CC BY-SA 4.0. Each of MeerKAT's 64 dishes measures 13.5 meters across and uses an offset Gregorian configuration, a design chosen because its unblocked aperture provides clean sensitivity and rejects interference from satellites and terrestrial transmitters. The dishes carry cryogenically cool...

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Image: Morganoshell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/x/1/meerkat-wp/k6x1-meerkat-the-architecture-of-listening.mp3 0:06 3 full MeerKAT: Giant Bubbles and Neutron Star Collisions https://qualla.com/meerkat/ Photo credit Morganoshell, CC BY-SA 4.0. MeerKAT's early science returns have been remarkable. In September 2019, astronomers using the telescope discovered enormous balloon-like radio structures towering hundreds of light-years above and below the galactic center, features that had been invisible to previous instrument...

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Image: Morganoshell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/x/1/meerkat-wp/k6x1-meerkat-giant-bubbles-and-neutron-star-collisions.mp3 0:06 4 full MeerKAT: Pathway to the Square Kilometre Array https://qualla.com/meerkat/ Photo credit rogerconroy, CC BY-SA 2.0. MeerKAT was always intended as a stepping stone. Its 64 dishes will be folded into Phase 1 of the Square Kilometre Array's mid-frequency component, joining 133 new SKA dishes to create a 197-antenna network on the same Karoo site. All existing MeerKAT infrastructure -- the proces...

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Image: rogerconroy | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/x/1/meerkat-wp/k6x1-meerkat-pathway-to-the-square-kilometre-array.mp3 0:06 5 full MeerKAT: A Continental Ambition https://qualla.com/meerkat/ Photo credit Morganoshell, CC BY-SA 4.0. MeerKAT's influence reaches beyond South Africa. The African Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network is extending radio astronomy capability to Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zambia. MeerKAT participates in global VLBI operations, adding...

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Image: Morganoshell | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/x/1/meerkat-wp/k6x1-meerkat-a-continental-ambition.mp3 0:06 6 full