DSI-NRF Funds HIRAX Dark Energy Telescope
Following an intensive and rigorous review process involving international experts, the National Research Foundation (NRF) approved the funding of R35 million for the Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) which will be built as a guest instrument on the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (SARAO) site in the Karoo. The new equipment will bolster the country’s ability to perform cutting-edge astronomy research in alignment with the Grand Challenge Astronomy National Strategy. This new investment by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) in partnership with the NRF, will provide funding for the telescope dishes, feeds, radio frequency over fibre system, and some backend hardware. This contribution represents a significant investment in the overall HIRAX project.
Ideas, Inventions And Innovations
New View of Nature’s Oldest Light Suggest Universe Is 13.77 Billion Years Old
From an observatory high above Chile’s Atacama Desert, astronomers have taken a new look at the oldest light in the universe.
Their observations, plus a bit of cosmic geometry, suggest that the universe is 13.77 billion years old – give or take 40 million years. A Cornell researcher co-authored one of two papers about the findings, which add a fresh twist to an ongoing debate in the astrophysics community.
The new estimate, using data gathered at the National Science Foundation’s Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), matches the one provided by the standard model of the universe, as well as measurements of the same light made by the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, which measured remnants of the Big Bang from 2009 to ’13.