Africa Millimetre Telescope to bring black holes into sharper focus for movies

An international consortium led by Radboud University has secured a contract agreement for the construction of a radio telescope that will become the Africa Millimetre Telescope (AMT) in Namibia. The new telescope will be an essential addition to the global Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) network, which produced the historic first images of black holes. The AMT is the first African node to the global EHT network, filling a key gap in the array and providing better sensitivity to image rapid motions around black holes and to detect flaring radio sources. The AMT consortium, consisting of Radboud University, University of Oxford, University of Amsterdam, University of Namibia, University of South Africa, and University of Turku as associated member, has found a specialised partner in mtex antenna technology, which will further develop and build a proven telescope design specifically for the AMT project. The project further strengthens the international position of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration in astronomical research. 

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