In this picture, taken in July during winter in the Southern Hemisphere, I am standing in front of one of the receivers for the MeerKAT radio telescope in the Karoo Desert of South Africa.
MeerKAT and Working There
MeerKAT is a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array telescope, which will be built by 2028, and which my country will co-host alongside Australia. It produces 64 receivers for MeerKAT, the astronomical data that I analyze in my research. Its name is a play on words. “Meer” means “more” in Afrikaans. Kat means “cat”, referring to the Karoo array telescope, a name for a previous design with 20 receivers. The name also refers to meerkats, the small mammals that live in the region.
My Childhood Dream
I spend most of my days on the computer, analyzing astronomical data. The photo was taken during an open day when the public can visit the telescope site and are shown around by astronomers.
The vastness of the universe has intrigued me since childhood. When I was twelve, I became fascinated by the mystery of black holes. I wondered if I could someday develop theories or conduct observations using powerful telescopes that would help explain what black holes are and what happens inside them.
I have taken significant steps towards realizing this dream. For my PhD at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, I studied radio galaxies using data from telescopes and the European Southern Observatory in Chile. Some of those telescopes were part of a collaboration that resulted in the first direct image of a black hole in 2019, and I felt a tremendous pride in that achievement. Now, I study black holes and star formation to understand how the universe evolves.
Engaging the Public
It is important to engage the public with what we discover. As a Black South African, I am in the minority in my field. I believe that astronomers need to embrace their differences and not be blind to them or consider them a hindrance. When we reach that point, astronomy will become a more welcoming and safer place for everyone.
Source: Nature 624, 466 (2023)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03900-y
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