SECTION B: SUMMARY
QUESTION 2: SUMMARISING IN YOUR OWN WORDS
TEXT B discusses the achievement of the MeerKAT telescope. Summarise, in your
own words the importance of the telescope to South African astronomy.
NOTE: 1. Your summary should include SEVEN points and NOT exceed 90 words.
TEXT C
2. You must write a fluent paragraph.
3. You are NOT required to include a title for the summary.
4. Indicate your word count at the end of your summary.
SA CELEBRATES MeerKAT
South Africa has officially unveiled its 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope in
Carnarvon in the Northern Cape, which has produced the clearest image yet of the
super massive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers
showed off this best image yet taken of the centre of the Milky Way galaxy as a
demonstration of the capability of the instrument. The black hole is about 25 000
light years away from Earth and is difficult to image because it's hidden by stellar
dust and gas.
While the MeerKAT is a local project, it will eventually form part of the Square
Kilometre Array (SKA). The SKA is a larger vision to grow radio astronomy on the
continent and is intended to dovetail with the mammoth SKA which will consist of
about 3 000 linked radio telescopes.
"Other African partner countries will host the outer stations of the telescope during
SKA Phase 2 in later years. We have signed a memorandum of understanding to
commit ourselves to grow the field of astronomy in their countries," said Takalani
Nemaungani, the Department of Science and Technology's chief director for the SKA
and African Very Long Baseline Interferometry. The MeerKAT is also likely to attract
international astronomers because the instrument offers a view of the sky not
available in the northern hemisphere.
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The imaging of the galaxy centre follows on from a previous observation first for the
MeerKAT even before the instrument was officially inaugurated. The instrument
observed a rare astronomical phenomenon known as a magnetar earlier in 2018.
"Although MeerKAT isn't yet complete, it's now clearly a functioning telescope.
We've been training a new generation of researchers, and soon our young scientists
will be using what promises to be a remarkable discovery machine," said Professor
Roy Maartens, SKA SA Research chair at the University of the Western Cape.
International researchers lauded the image quality of the MeerKAT. "The MeerKAT
image has such clarity. It shows so many features never before seen," said Farhad
Yusef-Zadeh of North Western University in Evanston, Illinois, USA. He is one of the
world's leading experts on the mysterious filamentary structures present near the
central black hole but nowhere else in the Milky Way.
[Adapted from:
https://www.news24.com/Green/News/sa-celebrates-meerkat-launch-with-dramatic-milky-way-
black-hole-image-20180713]
TOTAL SECTION BR-10