Tag Archives: space

June 11, 2012

SKA in SA – an international sensation

By Anina Mumm

Local and international media have been buzzing with news after it was announced that the majority of the SKA, the world’s largest radio telescope array, will be built in South Africa.

  1. On the 25th of May 2012 it was announced that Square Kilometer Array, the SKA, would be shared between South Africa and Australia. The two nations had been bidding against each other to host the most sensitive equipment ever to peer into the history of the universe. Newsrooms the world over covered the momentous event and congratulations poured in from officials and citizens.
  2. NBikitsha
    A great day for S.A and Africa. Well done to all. #SKA
    Nikiwe Bikitsha
    Fri, May 25 2012 10:04:44
  3. Thrishni
    Kinda cool that the country that has the Cradle of Humankind will also help figure out the origin of the universe. We rule. #ska
    ThrishniS
    Fri, May 25 2012 10:56:44
  4. agentzee
    Woohoo! So proud of our #ska team! Well done to everyone! What a great day for science in the southern hemisphere!
    Agent Zee
    Fri, May 25 2012 10:19:46
  5. 702JohnRobbie
    Well done to to the marvellous Dr Bernie Fanaroff on all the work he did leading the #SKA bid. @lead_sa
    John Robbie
    Mon, May 28 2012 02:20:08
  6. NicDawes
    As the great Laurie Anderson might have said, “Big science, hallelujah, yodelay hee hoo”. #SKA
    Nicholas Dawes
    Fri, May 25 2012 11:02:47
  7. But the project will not be shared equally – most of the dishes will be built on the African continent.
  8. Derek_Hanekom
    Only 60 to Aus in fact “@Loelof: Looks like 2500 of 3000 (dishes) are going to be placed in Africa…that’s the type of sharing I like #SKA”
    Derek Hanekom
    Fri, May 25 2012 10:52:19
  9. sarahemilywild
    Recap: #SKA is shared btw SA & Aus; SA won technical and so gets lion share, along with its African partner countries. @BusinessDayDigi
    Sarah Wild
    Fri, May 25 2012 09:11:21
  10. SKA_Africa
    Prof Jonas: We must emphasise that we got the majority of the #SKA. Africa is a destination for science and engineering. We should be proud!
    SKA Africa
    Fri, May 25 2012 09:42:04

  11. Politics

  12. Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor felt that the decision was unexpected. In the run up to the announcement, Pandor had repeatedly expressed her confidence that South Africa’s site was the more technically sound. Indeed, in a head to head comparison South Africa did come out on top. The international SKA team felt however that both countries had invested too much over the last few years for there to be a loser.
  13. Even if South Africa lost the bid, its astronomy capabilities already gained a big boost from, for example, the MeerKAT telescopes that had been constructed as a prescursor to the SKA.

  14. Everybody wins

  15. The SKA will not only boost the economies of the host countries, but other countries like India will benefit from the so-called biggest science project ever.
  16. BrianBoyleSKA
    One clear winner from the #SKA_telescope site decision. The Project itself.
    Dr Brian Boyle
    Mon, Jun 11 2012 08:06:09
  17. ConversationEDU
    The #SKA will drive South Africa to generate a “brain gain”, and will also “develop humanity as a whole” http://bit.ly/JQSfBj
    The Conversation
    Mon, May 28 2012 19:54:32
  18. Read more on what the telescope means for Wits.

  19. Fracking

  20. The area where the SKA will be built is subject to an astronomy law that prohibits any activity interfering with the sensitive telescopes, including fracking. News24 reports Pandor thoughts on the matter: ”There is no decision by government on that [fracking]. We must understand the science before any licence is given, but I will use the astronomy advantage act if necessary”.

  21. Funding Problems

  22. Europe and the US was to foot around 80% of the estimated R15- to R25-billion construction cost, but dwindling economies and America’s space budget cuts will not see this materialise; South Africa now risks going even deeper into debt.
  23. Overall, hosting the SKA has been and will be a big win for science in Africa. Construction will start in 2016 and the ambitious project is expected to be fully operational by 2024.
    Read more on the SKA in Africa.
    Click here for related stories.

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April 15, 2012

Geosciences rock first open day

By Anina Mumm

Fossils, meteors and Mars absorbed top Johannesburg matrics last week in an open day that Wits Geosciences hopes will draw more students to study Geology. “Geoscience companies are banging down my door saying ‘where are your graduates?’” said Senior lecturer Dr Susan Webb. The Exploring Earth open day, held during the university break, was a first for the School of Geosciences. The School recognised a need to expose high school students to earth science before they applied for university, and to attract top performing students. Around 50 students were invited from the top 25 feeder schools in Johannesburg and were split into teams to compete in the five challenges of the day. The first challenge was to match the microscopic image of a rock to its life-sized partner. The wide-eyed students were free to interact with the rocks and minerals, the microscope samples and the machine itself.

“It’s good fun, this,” said Cameron Dry (above right) from St John’s College, who wanted to be a fighter pilot before a vocational training session convinced him otherwise. “I love science. I just never thought I could have a career in it.” On the library lawns, the students used a mallet to hit a metal plate in the geoscience equivalent of a carnival Strongman game.

“The hammer was really heavy,” said Jeppe Girls’ pupil Athena Tsai. A computer collected information about the hit for the students to use in calculating the thickness of the soil below. Next, the students used Google Earth to explore the surface of this planet, and Mars, before sitting down to a free lunch in the Bleloch Geological Museum.

Prof Lew Ashwal headed up the meteorite challenge with an array of space rocks worth around R500 000. He told them meteorites were important because “they’re cool” and “they’re worth a f**k lot of money”. He said people often phoned him, thinking they had found a meteorite. But “nine times out of ten it’s a ‘meteowrong’”.

The last challenge was for pupils to reconstruct a skeleton from loose fossils after briefly studying a complete version.

“Judging by the students’ reactions [today] was a success,” said PhD candidate and associate lecturer Grant Bybee, who had manned the microscope challenge. The winning team members each received a mineral box worth about R300.

Photos: Anina Minnaar

Published on Vuvuzela online, 15 April 2012

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March 11, 2012

Water for life – on Mars

By Anina Mumm

Bugs from Mars could be our distant neighbours and perhaps even our ancestors.

In a lecture at the Science Stadium this week, NASA scientist Dr Suzanne Young showed that life could thrive on Mars and may even have originated there. Part of a team of NASA scientists who sent the Phoenix robot to Mars, Young presented their top 10 discoveries, which proved conditions for life were present on Mars.

These were the same conditions that made life on Earth possible: water, an energy source (food) and a non-toxic environment, she said. The Phoenix probe landed on an icy surface on Mars and researchers called this area “Holy Cow” because they were surprised at finding water so soon in the mission.

Clouds made of water, and snow falling from them, were also discovered. “There was a full water weather system going on [on Mars] and that was awesome,” said Young. The Martian soil was also not too acidic and not too soapy for life. In other words, the pH of the soil was similar to the Earth’s soil.

The scientists also found a chemical called perchlorate on Mars, which has been shown to be “food” for some microbes on Earth. Microbes are microscopic “bugs”, like bacteria, and are simple life forms, consisting of only one cell. Plants and animals are made up of billions of cells.

IMAGE SOURCE: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/posters.php

Young said “life adapts to anything we throw at it”. She used the example of bacteria living on nuclear reactors, where the levels of radiation were deadly and much higher than anything found in nature. Nuclear reactors were created by humans only 50 years ago and yet bacteria had already adapted to it.

Wits Professor Francis Thackeray, director of the Institute for Human Evolution, worked with Young years ago in Kromdraai, near the Cradle of Humankind. He said the oldest microbes found so far had lived on earth around 3.5-billion years ago, but microbes 4-billion years old had been found on a rock that had come to Earth from Mars.

Thackeray said this was evidence supporting one theory that life came to Earth on a meteor from Mars. Renowned Wits astronomer Prof David Block ended the lecture by thanking the speakers for trying to answer the holy grail of questions: “Are we alone?”

For videos and images from the mission, visit phoenix.lpl.arizona.ed.

Published in Vuvuzela, 5th Edition, 9 March 2012.

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