Exploring the universe from Namibia

  • By being situated in the southern hemisphere, the AMT will have an excellent view of the black hole in the centre of our Milky Way and form a crucial link between telescopes in Europe, South and Latin America, and the South Pole.

  • The AMT is a radio telescope and will be designed as a 15-meter single-dish telescope. A radio telescope can see radiation from the universe which is not visible with our eyes. The AMT will operate at millimetre wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum to observe radio waves from the cosmos. These radio waves tell a different story about the objects in the sky than we can see.

    Want to know exactly how this works? Our colleagues at the National Radio Observatory in South Africa are masters at explaining what radio astronomy is, and how it works. Visit their website to learn more: NRAO

  • The Radboud Radio Lab is responsible for the development of the telescope and the instruments, in collaboration with the University of Groningen and ASTRON. ‘Building the AMT telescope is a truly collaborative project’ says Marc Klein Wolt, project director and director of the Radboud Radio Lab.

  • Yes it is, or in the words of our principal researcher, Heino Falcke, at Radboud University: ‘This telescope will be the first of its kind in Africa and will allow us to peer deep into the heart of our own Milky Way. The national funding allows the entire Dutch astronomy community to play a pioneering role in bringing the global Event Horizon Telescope to the next level and help us understand the dynamic and violent processes around black holes.’

  • Co-investigator Sera Markoff at University of Amsterdam explains it quite well: ‘For the first time we will be able to monitor both the black hole horizon and the enormous plasma jets they eject, allowing us to better understand their launch conditions. We will also be able to extend our studies both in “colour” as well as black hole mass, via flaring black holes that flash on and off in the sky.’' On top of that, we will finally be capable to enable the first colour movies of black holes.

  • The Dutch Research Council, NWO, has awarded a grant of 3.45 million euros. With this grant, it supports the telescope’s infrastructure. The construction and operation of the telescope will also be supported by a guarantee of 12 million euros from Radboud University. In 2022 the team were awarded 14 million euros from the European Research Council (ERC) for the scientific research with the AMT.

  • The main purpose of the AMT is to provide an essential link to the network of radio telescopes around the globe known as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) which produced the first ever picture of a black hole in 2019, and again in 2022.

    There are three main science topics planned for the AMT:

    • Multi-wavelength observing of super massive black holes

    • Accretion and jet formations around super massive black holes

    • Observing stellar mass back holes

    The remaining observation time is available for other scientists to do research on objects which can be observed at sub-millimetre wavelengths. University of Turku will do long time observations of Active Galaxy Nuclei (AGN) to learn more about very bright spots in the centres of galaxies.