Astronomy Department at UCT

SCIENCE: The SKA pathfinders are facilities dotted around the globe delivering cutting-edge science and helping the community to prepare for the SKA telescopes!

In the latest issue of Contact we explore some of their recent discoveries:

🌟 An unusual radio glow in the distant Universe found by MeerKAT
🔍 A nearby galaxy serving as gravitational lens for a cosmic laser
🗺️ LOFAR maps the radio sky in exceptional detail
⚖️ Measuring the mass of the first stars with REACH
👩‍💻 A powerful odd radio circle discovered by citizen scientists in India
🌌 The largest low-frequency radio colour image of the Milky Way

Read it all here 👉 https://loom.ly/G25ekVw

Photo credit: Maya Horton and the LOFAR surveys collaboration.

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With thanks to our partners for their contributions:
South African Radio Astronomy Observatory - SARAO, IDIA, ASTRON - Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, The University of Manchester and ICRAR

We are hiring!

Vacant Position - Programme Coordinator: Schools

Apply online: https://www.sarao.ac.za/job/programme-coordinator-schools/



The people of SARAO (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory) are a diverse team of highly skilled professionals dedicated to designing, building, and operating world-class radio telescopes.

This team is composed of:

- Scientists and Astronomers who use the telescopes to conduct cutting-edge research, studying everything from distant galaxies and pulsars to the origins of the universe.

- Engineers (including software, electrical, mechanical, and data engineers) who are responsible for designing, constructing, and maintaining the incredibly complex hardware and software systems that make the telescopes work.

- Data Scientists and Technicians who manage and process the immense volumes of data (petabytes) that the telescopes collect.

- Project Managers and Support Staff who oversee the operations, international collaborations, and the facility's extensive human capital development programs, which aim to train the next generation of scientists and engineers in Africa.

SANSA has a vacancy for a Researcher with a Space Physics Focus at the Hermanus site.

You can apply here: https://l1nq.com/dymfrsp

Vacant Position - Programme Coordinator: Schools - South African Radio Astronomy Observatory - NRF/SARAO Contract type: Permanent Job Level: Skilled / Middle Management Work Location: Carnarvon, Northern Cape Closing Date: 02 June 2026 The National Research Foundation (NRF) supports and promotes research and human capital development through funding, the provision of National Research Facilities and sc...

We are hiring!

Vacant Position - Supervisor: Housekeeping

Apply online: https://www.sarao.ac.za/job/supervisor-housekeeping/



The people of SARAO (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory) are a diverse team of highly skilled professionals dedicated to designing, building, and operating world-class radio telescopes.

This team is composed of:

- Scientists and Astronomers who use the telescopes to conduct cutting-edge research, studying everything from distant galaxies and pulsars to the origins of the universe.

- Engineers (including software, electrical, mechanical, and data engineers) who are responsible for designing, constructing, and maintaining the incredibly complex hardware and software systems that make the telescopes work.

- Data Scientists and Technicians who manage and process the immense volumes of data (petabytes) that the telescopes collect.

- Project Managers and Support Staff who oversee the operations, international collaborations, and the facility's extensive human capital development programs, which aim to train the next generation of scientists and engineers in Africa.

ANNOUNCEMENT! UCT Astronomy Open Day

Are you a Grade 10-12 student interested in Astronomy? Would you like to learn more about the field and studying astronomy at UCT? If so, we would like to invite you to attend our Astronomy Open Day on Saturday, 30 May 2026! To sign up, please fill out this Google form by Monday, 25 May 2026:

https://forms.gle/EDE85pwKciX6caCc7

University of Cape Town
UCT Science Faculty

A team affiliated with IDIA, including Walter Silima, Prof. Mattia Vaccari, Dr Lucia Marchetti (UCT) and Daniel Egbo (SAAO), recently visited the UK as part of a Royal Society-supported grant for a workshop and collaborative research programme. The visit aligned with IDIA’s role in linking South African data-intensive astronomy with UK expertise in machine learning, particularly in the context of major facilities such as MeerKAT and the Square Kilometre Array.
The programme combined participation in the UK workshop “AI in Radio Astronomy: Preparing the UK for the SKA Data Future”, held at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh from 18 to 20 March 2026, with collaborative research discussions involving UK and IDIA researchers. Contributions included work on radio frequency interference mitigation led by Walter Silima, multi-wavelength source classification and anomaly detection proposed by Daniel Egbo, and advanced data visualisation led by Dr Lucia Marchetti, including the use of immersive technologies such as iDaVIE. Joint research also explored gravitational lensing using data from Euclid, MeerKAT, LOFAR, and Herschel, with Prof. Vaccari and Dr Lucia Marchetti contributing expertise in submillimetre survey science.

South African Astronomical Observatory
University of Cape Town
UCT Science Faculty

On March 18, 2026, a group of 27 MSc students from AIMS part of the “AI 4 Radio Astronomy Course” organised by South African Radio Astronomy Observatory - SARAO visited the UCT Astronomy Department. During their visit, they had the opportunity to learn about the cutting-edge research that IDIA is conducting in the realm of Big Data research and data visualisation. On this occasion, they visited the UCT/IDIA Visualisation Lab, where Dr Lucia Marchetti and Mayhew Steyn gave them a full overview of CARTA and iDaVIE and engaged with the students to answer their many questions that arose. Students were amazed by the technology developed at IDIA and showed a great interest in continuing into a PhD on related topics.

University of Cape Town
UCT Science Faculty

Damian Matthew from UCT Astronomy recently visited collaborators at the University of Massachusetts. The purpose of the research visit was to begin investigating the identification, recovery, and properties of filaments in simulations of the universe, specifically the Physically Evolved Winds (PhEW) simulation suite. Damian works on filament identification in the LADUMA survey and how neutral hydrogen in galaxies changes as a function of the filament environment. The visit was undertaken at the UMass Department of Astronomy, Amherst in conjunction with Prof. Neal Katz.

University of Cape Town
UCT Science Faculty
University of Massachusetts Amherst