MeerKAT Surveys

Researchers at the Astronomy Department at UCT are involved in a number of MeerKAT Surveys, namely:

•  LADUMA : Looking at the Distant Universe with the MeerKAT Array - An ultra-deep survey of neutral hydrogen gas in the early universe.
•  MIGHTEE : The MeerKAT International GHz Tuned Extragalactic Exploration Survey - Deep continuum observations of the earliest radio galaxies.
•  ThunderKAT : The Hunt for Dynamic and Explosive Radio Transients with MeerKAT - Observations of X-ray binaries, Cataclysmic Variables, Gamma ray bursts, and supernovae, plus new types of transient radio sources.
•  MHONGOOSE : MeerKAT HI Observations of Nearby Galactic Objects - Observing Southern Emitters - Investigations of different types of galaxies; dark matter and the cosmic web.
•  Fornax cluster : A study of the nearby Fornax Galaxy Cluster - Galaxy formation and evolution in the cluster environment.

The scientific objectives of these surveys, and other proposed MeerKAT projects, have been described in the proceedings of the "MeerKAT Science: On the Pathway to the SKA" conference (25-27 May 2016, Stellenbosch), published in 2018 by the Proceedings of Science (PoS).

If you like to get involved in any of the MeerKAT surveys listed above, please contact the following UCT academics for more information:

•  Dr Sarah Blyth (co-Principal investigator: LADUMA)
•  Prof Russ Taylor (co-Principal investigator: MIGHTEE)
•  Prof Patrick Woudt (co-Principal investigator: ThunderKAT)
•  Prof Erwin de Blok (Principal investigator: MHONGOOSE), Prof Claude Carignan (co-investigator: MHONGOOSE)
•  Prof Renee Kraan-Korteweg (co-investigator: Fornax cluster)

Last update: 2 January 2019