The Africa Millimetre Telescope
Paper in proceeding, 2016

It is believed that supermassive black holes are found in the centres of galaxies, including the Milky Way. Still, only indirect evidence has been gathered for the existence of these enigmatic objects that are predicted by the general theory of relativity. With the Event Horizon Telescope, a Very Long Baseline Interferometry network of millimetre-wave (radio) telescopes, it will be possible to directly image the 'shadow' of the event horizon of the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, Sgr A∗. Although the Event Horizon Telescope utilises an extensive network of telescopes, there is a huge gap in the coverage of the u-v-plane for these observations across Africa. We discuss the benefits of adding the Africa Millimetre Telescope to the Event Horizon Telescope and present Mt. Gamsberg in Namibia as the best site for this new and first mm-wave telescope in Africa.

Author

M. Backes

University of Namibia

C. Müller

Radboud University

Max Planck Society

John Conway

Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences, Onsala Space Observatory

R. P. Deane

Rhodes University

R. Evans

University of Namibia

Cardiff University

H. Falcke

Radboud University

Max Planck Society

R. Fraga-Encinas

Radboud University

C. Goddi

Radboud University

T. P. Krichbaum

Max Planck Society

M. Klein Wolt

Radboud University

G. MacLeod

Hartebeeshoek Radio Astronomy Observatory

Varm Ribeiro

Botswana International University of Science and Technology

Radboud University

F. Roelofs

Radboud University

Z. Q. Shen

Shanghai Astronomical Observatory

H. J. van Langevelde

Leiden University

Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)

Proceedings of Science

18248039 (eISSN)

Vol. 2016-January

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

More information

Latest update

7/12/2024