MeerKAT’s First Light image a significant milestone for South Africa

Marked as the first significant scientific milestone achieved by the MeerKAT radio telescope, the telescope’s First Light image of the sky, released by Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor on Friday, proved that it was “the best radio telescope of its kind in the southern hemisphere”. Covering less than 0.01% of the entire celestial sphere, the MeerKAT First Light image showed more than 1 300 galaxies in the distant universe, compared with 70 known in this location prior to MeerKAT.