 MeerKAT, South African Telescope | |
| Alternative names | Karoo Array Telescope |
|---|---|
| Part of | South African Radio Astronomy Observatory Square Kilometre Array  |
| Location(s) | Meerkat National Park, Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality, Namakwa District Municipality, Northern Cape, RSA |
| Coordinates | 30°42′48″S 21°26′35″E / 30.71322°S 21.44306°E |
| Organization | Department of Science and Innovation National Research Foundation |
| Wavelength | 3 cm (10.0 GHz)–30 cm (1,000 MHz) |
| First light | 16 July 2016 |
| Telescope style | radio interferometer |
| Number of telescopes | 64 |
| Diameter | 13.5 m (44 ft 3 in) |
| Collecting area | 9,000 m2 (97,000 sq ft) |
| Website | www |
  Location of MeerKAT | |
 Related media on Commons | |
MeerKAT, originally the Karoo Array Telescope, is a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In 2003, South Africa submitted an expression of interest to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Radio Telescope in Africa, and the locally designed and built MeerKAT was incorporated into the first phase of the SKA. MeerKAT was launched in 2018.
Along with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), also in South Africa, and two radio telescopes in Western Australia, the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) and the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), the MeerKAT is one of four precursors to the final SKA.