How visionary scientist Bernie Fanaroff put African astronomy on the map

Without Dr Bernie Fanaroff, the SKA might never have come to South African shores Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images

Recent decades have seen remarkable growth in astronomy on the African continent. Africa enjoys pristine dark skies and vast radio quiet zones, making it the ideal home for many advanced telescopes trained on our galaxy and beyond.

For instance, Namibia hosts the High Energy Spectroscopic System (HESS), which is an impressive gamma-ray telescope. The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) in the small South African town of Sutherland is the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. The MeerKAT telescope in South Africa’s arid and sparsely populated Karoo region is one of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes. It is also one of the precursor telescopes that have been built in preparation for an almighty radio telescope called the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).