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South Africa is preparing to take a giant leap for mankind by building a telescope that the world’s leading astronomers will use to seek the origins of the universe. A few hundred sheep have so far been relocated from a desolate area of the semi-arid Northern Cape to make way for the seven-dish Meerkat radio telescope, already in operation and the precursor to the massive Square Kilometre Array telescope (SKA), planned to comprise 64 dishes, each 13m in diameter.
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