{"id":2441,"date":"2026-01-27T13:59:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ska-spain.es\/?p=2441"},"modified":"2026-01-27T13:59:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:59:21","slug":"el-telescopio-ska-mid-cobra-vida-con-sus-primeras-franjas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ska-spain.es\/en\/el-telescopio-ska-mid-cobra-vida-con-sus-primeras-franjas\/","title":{"rendered":"SKAO's telescope in South Africa 'comes alive' with first fringes milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

27\/01\/2026 \u2013 The SKA Observatory\u2019s growing telescope array in South Africa, SKA-Mid, has achieved \u201cfirst fringes\u201d using two of its dishes, a milestone that demonstrates it is operating as an interferometer for the first time.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first true test that all our systems are working together, and that the SKA-Mid telescope is alive as a scientific instrument,\u201d said SKAO Director-General Prof. Philip Diamond.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving each dish observe the sky individually is an achievement, but having them operate in concert as one telescope is a much bigger technical challenge, and our teams have now achieved that milestone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

SKA-Mid, like its counterpart SKA-Low in Australia, is an array where many individual antennas are connected by optical fibre to act like one much larger telescope, equivalent in size to the distance between its furthest antennas. \"Fringes\u201d are obtained when signals received by two or more antennas are combined successfully.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

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.<\/p><\/div>\n

Two of SKA-Mid's 15m-diameter dishes were used together to achieve the result, observing a radio galaxy estimated to be around 2.6 billion light years away.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis source has been well studied so we know what the signal should look like, and that\u2019s what we observed with this first fringes result. It confirms that all our hardware and software systems are working as we designed them to do, giving us confidence as we begin to commission the telescope,\u201d said Dr Betsey Adams, SKA-Mid Commissioning Scientist.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat includes seeing that the dishes can track across the sky in a coordinated way under the control of the telescope manager software, the receivers are being cooled to the required temperature of minus 250\u00b0C, the synchronisation and timing system is accurately timing signals from the different dishes to a billionth of a second, and the correlator is correctly processing and aligning the data.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

SKA-Mid now has seven dish structures assembled on site in the Northern Cape, with a further 12 on their way from the manufacturers CETC54 in China. When complete the telescope will comprise 197 dishes, including the integration of the existing MeerKAT radio telescope built and operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO). <\/span>The hardware and software for the SKA telescopes are being developed in the Observatory's member states, including Spain. Specifically, the time signal distribution and synchronisation system, which is key to performing interferometry. This technology has been developed by the Spanish company Safran Electronics & Defence Spain, based in Granada, which is also responsible for the same system for the SKA-Low telescope in Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStarting the year with this news is a huge boost for the teams that have worked extremely hard to see it happen, including SKAO and SARAO colleagues, and our global and local partners who are contributing to the infrastructure, hardware and software for SKA-Mid,\u201d said Ben Lewis, SKA-Mid Senior Project Manager.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith all we\u2019ve learned from these months building up to first fringes, we\u2019re in a strong position to achieve our next milestone \u2013 the first image from a four-dish array within the next few months \u2013 and then to see SKA-Mid gradually grow in size and capabilities from there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Across the ocean in Australia, the SKA-Low telescope continues to grow at pace. Around 70 antenna stations, each comprising 256 antennas, have now been installed at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory on Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia. <\/span>Last year its first image was released, using an early version of the telescope comprising four connected stations \u2013 1,024 antennas \u2013 or less than 1% of the complete telescope.<\/span><\/p>\n

As work continues to commission stations and integrate them into the array, planning is underway for the start of science verification activities with SKA-Low in 2027, when the first data will be released to the community for test observations.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27\/01\/2026 – El telescopio del Observatorio SKA (SKAO) en Sud\u00e1frica, SKA-Mid, ha logrado obtener las \u00abprimeras franjas\u00bb utilizando dos de sus antenas, un hito que demuestra que est\u00e1 funcionando como interfer\u00f3metro por primera vez. \u00abEsta es la primera prueba real de que todos nuestros sistemas funcionan en conjunto y de que el telescopio SKA-Mid est\u00e1 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,30,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-science","category-skao"],"yoast_head":"\nEl telescopio SKA-Mid \u00abcobra vida con sus primeras franjas\u00bb - SKA Spain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ska-spain.es\/en\/el-telescopio-ska-mid-cobra-vida-con-sus-primeras-franjas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"El telescopio SKA-Mid \u00abcobra vida con sus primeras franjas\u00bb - SKA Spain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"27\/01\/2026 – El telescopio del Observatorio SKA (SKAO) en Sud\u00e1frica, SKA-Mid, ha logrado obtener las \u00abprimeras franjas\u00bb utilizando dos de sus antenas, un hito que demuestra que est\u00e1 funcionando como interfer\u00f3metro por primera vez. \u00abEsta es la primera prueba real de que todos nuestros sistemas funcionan en conjunto y de que el telescopio SKA-Mid est\u00e1 […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ska-spain.es\/en\/el-telescopio-ska-mid-cobra-vida-con-sus-primeras-franjas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SKA Spain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-27T12:59:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ska-spain.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SKAO-Mid_UK23336.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"adminska\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"adminska\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ska-spain.es\/el-telescopio-ska-mid-cobra-vida-con-sus-primeras-franjas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ska-spain.es\/el-telescopio-ska-mid-cobra-vida-con-sus-primeras-franjas\/\",\"name\":\"El telescopio SKA-Mid \u00abcobra vida con sus primeras franjas\u00bb - 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