Astronomers used machine learning to mine data from South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope: What they found

Source: The post is based on the article “Astronomers used machine learning to mine data from South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope: What they found” published in the DTE on 7th April 2023.

What is the News?

Recently, astronomers used machine learning to mine data from South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope.

About MeerKAT telescope

It was originally known as the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT) which would consist of 20 receptors. At present, it is having an array of 64 interlinked receptors.

Located in: South Africa’s Northern Cape province.

Significance: It is a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope.

Applications: It uses radio signals from space to study the evolution of the universe and everything it contains.

What astronomers found using machine learning on MeerKAT Telescope?

Astronomers used a coding framework called Astronomoly and found Odd Radio Circle (ORC). Astronomers named this circle as SAURON (a Steep and Uneven Ring Of Non-thermal Radiation).

These are very large mysterious objects that are highly circular and bright along the edges at radio wavelengths. Though these ORCs are bright at radio wavelengths, they cannot be observed at visible, infrared or X-ray wavelengths.

What is Machine learning?