The SKA Observatory’s SKA-Mid telescope in South Africa has reached a major milestone by achieving “first fringes”, confirming that the array is operating as an interferometer for the first time. Using two of its 15-metre dishes, SKA-Mid successfully combined signals from a distant radio galaxy around 2.6 billion light years away.
This achievement demonstrates that the telescope’s complex hardware and software systems (including dish coordination, timing, cooling, and data processin) are working together as designed. With seven dishes now installed and many more to come, SKA-Mid is progressing toward its next milestone: producing its first image with a four-dish array, marking an important step toward full scientific operations.
Read the full SKAO press release here.
Image: One of the seven SKA-Mid dishes now constructed on site in South Africa’s Northern Cape, with SARAO’s MeerKAT radio telescope in the background. Credit: SKAO/Max Alexander.