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Feb 2024 - science Talks by Dane Kleiner, Francesca Loi, Filippo Maccagni and Paolo Serra at the MeerKAT@5 conference, where they showed various results of the MeerKAT Fornax Survey.
Jan 2024 - jobs Three-year HI postodoc position at INAF - Cagliari to work on the MeerKAT Fornax Survey. Deadline: 1 March 2024. See our jobs webpage.
Dec 2023 - science The year-4 observational campaign with MeerKAT has ended with 18 more Fornax fields observed to full depth. The survey is now 88% complete!
Nov 2023 - science Talks by Alessandro Loni, Filippo Maccagni and Paolo Serra at the 4th Italian SKA conference, showing several of our recent results and papers.
Nov 2023 - science Paper on SALT spectroscopy of galaxies in the Fornax A group accepted for publication on MNRAS! It relates the star formation history of these galaxies to the stage pre-processing defined in Kleiner et al. (2021). Congrats to 1st author Ilani Loubser!
Oct 2023 - outreach Alessandro Loni showed a few of our MeerKAT HI images of Fornax galaxies during his talk on gas recycling in galaxies at the event "Cuatru Quartus de Scientzia" (in Italian).
Sep 2023 - jobs Postdoc position at INAF - Cagliari to work on the MeerKAT Fornax Survey and/or ViCTORIA. Deadline: 20 Oct 2023. See brief job description and how to apply. The full call (in Italian) is available here.
Sep 2023 - science MeerKAT Fornax Survey talk by Paolo Serra at the conference "A journey through galactic environments" in Porto Ercole.
Aug 2023 - science MeerKAT Fornax Survey team meeting at Poetto beach in Cagliari. We discussed our latest results and our plans for the coming year.
Aug 2023 - science Our year-4 observational campaign with MeerKAT has started. We expect to observe about 15 of our Fornax fields, expanding the survey footprint towards the Fornax A group.
May 2023 - science Paper II of the MeerKAT Fornax Survey accepted for publication on A&A! It discusses the HI properties of dwarf galaxies in Fornax, making the case for the fast removal of gas from these objects. Congrats to 1st author Dane Kleiner!
May 2023 - science Paper on the making of the lenticular galaxy NGC 1436 in Fornax accepted for publication on MNRAS! It combines HI data from the MeerKAT Fornax Survey with MUSE optical spectroscopy from the Fornax3D survey and CO data from the ALMA Fornax Cluster Survey. Congrats to 1st author Alessandro Loni!
May 2023 - science Seminar on the MeerKAT Fornax Survey by Paolo Serra at the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Apr 2023 - jobs Ph.D. position at SARAO to work on the MeerKAT Fornax Survey under the supervision of team member Mpati Ramatsoku (Rhodes University, INAF). The student will study the properties of HI gas tails in the Fornax cluster. See position "SDP 4" at this page for a description of the project. For details on how to apply see this page.
Mar 2023 - science MeerKAT Fornax Survey talk by Alessandro Loni at the PHISCC conference in Cape Town.
Feb 2023 - science Paper I of the MeerKAT Fornax Survey accepted for publication on A&A! It describes the survey design and HI data processing, and presents the first unambiguous evidence of ram pressure shaping the distribution of HI in the Fornax cluster.
Feb 2023 - science Joint Munich Astrophysics talk on the MeerKAT Fornax Survey by Paolo Serra. Video available here.
Jan 2023 - science The year-3 observational campaign with MeerKAT has ended with 14 more Fornax fields observed to full depth. The survey is now 68% complete!
Nov 2022 - science MeerKAT Fornax Survey team meeting kindly hosted by ASTRON in Dwingeloo (NL). We discussed our beautiful results and our plans for the coming year.
Oct 2022 - science Paper on the molecular gas content of Fornax galaxies accepted for publication on ApJS, including some MeerKAT Fornax Survey team members as coauthors. Congrats to 1st author Kana Morokuma-Matsui.
Aug 2022 - science Our year-3 observational campaign with MeerKAT has started. We expect to observe another dozen of our Fornax fields, completing the central region of the cluster.
Apr 2022 - outreach Francesca Loi's recent paper on the depolarizing HI tail in Fornax A makes it to the front page of volume 660 of Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Feb 2022 - science Paper on a depolarizing H I tidal tail in the western lobe of Fornax A, based on MeerKAT and ASKAP data, accepted for publication on A&A. Congrats to 1st author Francesca Loi.
Feb 2022 - science The year-2 observational campaign with MeerKAT has ended with 24 more Fornax fields observed to full depth. The survey is now 53% complete!
Feb 2022 - team Congratulations to Dr. Alessandro Loni for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Cagliari. Alessandro's thesis focuses on galaxy evolution in Fornax based on ATCA, MeerKAT, MUSE and ALMA data.
Dec 2021 - science Excellent Fornax observing run at Paranal using VST/OmegaCam with a narrow-band Halpha filter to image the distribution of ionised gas across most of the Fornax cluster. This follows from our similar imaging in the region of NGC 1316 SW of Fornax.
Aug 2021 - science Our year-2 observational campaign with MeerKAT has started. We expect to observe 2 more dozens of Fornax fields in our mosaic.
Aug 2021 - science Paper on the feeding and feedback of the active galactic nucleus of Fornax A based on MeerKAT, ALMA and MUSE data accepted for publication on A&A. Congrats to 1st author Filippo Maccagni.
Jun 2021 - outreach Talk on the journey of galaxies across the cosmic web, including results from the MeerKAT Fornax Survey, given by Paolo Serra for the outreach association AstronomiAmo (in Italian).
Mar 2021 - science Talks by Paolo Serra and Dane Kleiner on the MeerKAT Fornax Survey at the online SKA science meeting.
Feb 2021 - outreach Our new A&A paper on galaxy pre-processing in the Fornax A galaxy group based on MeerKAT data is the subject of an article for the Italian online magazine MediaINAF (in Italian).
Feb 2021 - science Paper on the dust-to-gas ratio of Fornax galaxies accepted for publication on MNRAS. Congrats to 1st author Nikki Zabel.
Feb 2021 - outreach The latest episode of the Cosmic Savannah astronomy podcast features the MeerKAT Fornax Survey, talking about our use of the MeerKAT telescope and about some of our new results.
Feb 2021 - science Paper on the ATCA HI survey of the Fornax cluster accepted for publication on A&A, presenting first HI images of several galaxies in the cluster. The paper sets the scene for our new MeerKAT data. Congrats to 1st author Alessandro Loni.
Jan 2021 - science Our year-1observational campaign with MeerKAT is completed. We have observed 24 of the 91 MeerKAT Fornax Survey fields, completing 25% of the project in about 3 months. The data have been processed and are on spec. Stay tuned for first results!
Jan 2021 - science Paper on galaxy pre-processing in the Fornax A galaxy group based on MeerKAT and ESO/VST data accepted for publication on A&A. Congrats to 1st author Dane Kleiner.
Oct 2020 - science Green light for the official start of the MeerKAT Fornax Survey! The last commissioning tests were successful, the telescope and correlator mode required for our project are on spec, the computing resources to process the data are allocated. Ready, set, go!
Sep 2020 - science Computing resources for processing the data of the MeerKAT Fornax Survey with our CARACal pipeline now allocated at ILIFU.
Sep 2020 - science One final Fornax test with the MeerKAT zoom band to be used for the MeerKAT Fornax Survey.
May 2020 - science Our CARACal pipeline for the reduction of the data of the MeerKAT Fornax Survey (and much more!) has been publicly released. Please visit the CARACal github and readthedocs pages.
May 2020 - science Talk by Paolo Serra on the MeerKAT Fornax Survey at the online PHISCC 2020 meeting.
May 2020 - science Paper on the star formation efficiency of Fornax galaxies based on ALMA and MUSE data accepted for publication on MNRAS. Congrats to 1st author Nikki Zabel.
May 2020 - science First Fornax commissioning observation with the MeerKAT zoom band to be used for the MeerKAT Fornax Survey. Beautiful data at an HI velocity resolution < 1 km/s.
Apr 2020 - science Paper on the challenges of bandpass calibration with SKA-mid and its precursors accepted on MNRAS. Congrats to 1st author Ian Heywood.
Feb 2020 - science First HI image of the Fornax galaxy NGC 1365 using MeerKAT commissioning data with the SKARAB 32k correlator mode.
Dec 2019 - team Francesca Loi starts as FARE-funded Fornax postdocs at the Observatory of Cagliari to work on the magnetic fields in the Fornax cluster.
Nov 2019 - science Paper on the flickering nuclear activity of Fornax A accepted on A&A, based on MeerKAT and Sardinia Radio Telescope data. Congrats to 1st author Filippo Maccagni.
Oct 2019 - science Talks by Dane Kleiner, Daniel Molnar, Filippo Maccagni, Mpati Ramatsoku and Paolo Serra on our recent Fornax results (and related work) at the Galaxy Evolution and Environment GEE6 meeting in Trieste.
Sep 2019 - science Paper with the most comprehensive optical redshift catalogue of the Fornax area to date accepted on MNRAS. This is a fundamental resource for future studies both in the cluster and background volume. Congrats to 1st author Natasha Maddox.
Sep 2019 - outreach MediaINAF article (in Italian) on our project to use virtual reality for finding and analysing spectral line sources in radio data as part of a collaboration with IDIA (South Africa) and INAF - Catania.
Aug 2019 - science Talks by Alessandro Loni and Filippo Maccagni on Fornax at the conference Nine Billion Years of Neutral Gas Evolution in Munich.
Jul 2019 - outreach Our new A&A paper on hydrogen gas in NGC 1316 based on MeerKAT data is the subject of press releases from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) and the University of Bochum (in German), and of an article for the Italian online magazine MediaINAF (in Italian).
Jul 2019 - science Paper on the discovery of two long tails of hydrogen gas around NGC 1316 accepted on A&A, based on MeerKAT data. This discovery provides new insights into the merger history of this galaxy.
May 2019 - science Paper on the distribution of molecular gas in NGC 1316 (Fornax A) accepted on PASJ, including some MeerKAT Fornax Survey team members as coauthors. Congrats to 1st author Kana Morokuma-Matsui.
May 2019 - outreach Interview on Fornax with Paolo Serra dubbed into Spanish on ivoox. Making-of video on YouTube.
Apr 2019 - science SARAO has run the first on-sky tests of MeerKAT's SKARAB correlator in 32k mode.
Mar 2019 - outreach Interview with Paolo Serra and Filippo Maccagni on the MeerKAT Fornax Survey on TGR Sardegna.
Feb 2019 - science Talks by Paolo Serra and Filippo Maccagni on first results on Fornax from MeerKAT commissioning data at the 12th PHISCC conference in Perth.
Jan 2019 - science First HI image of Fornax A from MeerKAT-40 commissioning data made by Paolo Serra and Filippo Maccagni.
Dec 2018 - science First radio continuum and HI image of the NGC 1399 field from MeerKAT-60 data made by Filippo Maccagni and Paolo Serra.
Dec 2018 - jobs Postdoc position at INAF - Cagliari to work on the MeerKAT Fornax Survey with focus on the magnetic fields in the cluster. Deadline: 9 Jan 2018. See job ad and links therein for more info.
Nov 2018 - science Paper on the removal of molecular gas from galaxies in Fornax accepted on MNRAS, including some MeerKAT Fornax Survey team members as coauthors. Congrats to 1st author Nikki Zabel.
Sep 2018 - team Alessandro Loni starts as ERC-funded Fornax Ph.D. student at the Observatory of Cagliari and Cagliari Univesity.
Sep 2018 - team Daniel Molnar and Dane Kleiner start as ERC-funded Fornax postdocs at the Observatory of Cagliari.
Aug 2018 - science First radio continuum image of Fornax A from MeerKAT-40 commissioning data made by Filippo Maccagni.
Jul 2018 - science MeerKAT telescope officially inaugurated!
Jul 2018 - science Seven observing nights allocated to take narrow-band Halpha+[NII] imaging of the region centred on NGC 1316 (PI Reynier Peletier).
Jun 2018 - science Talks by Paolo Serra and Filippo Maccagni on Fornax at the 11th PHISCC conference in Pingtang.
Jan 2018 - science First image of Fornax A from MeerKAT-16 commissioning data made by Filippo Maccagni.
Nov 2017 - jobs Two ERC-funded postdoc positions at INAF - Cagliari to work on the MeerKAT Fornax Survey. Deadline: 15 Dec 2017. See AAS job ad and links therein for more info.
Oct 2017 - science Paper on the tidal origin of NGC 1427A in Fornax accepted on MNRAS, including some MeerKAT Fornax Survey team members as coauthors. This is based on pre-MeerKAT observations with ATCA. Congrats to 1st author Karen Lee-Waddell, and looking forward to more with MeerKAT!
Oct 2017 - team Filippo Maccagni and Mpati Ramatsoku start as ERC-funded Fornax postdocs at the Observatory of Cagliari.
Sep 2017 - science The MeerKAT Fornax Survey description paper is now available here (Proceedings of Science, MeerKAT Science: On the Pathway to the SKA).
Jun 2017 - science Following the review of all MeerKAT large science projects our MeerKAT Fornax Survey is ranked high: 5th overall, and 3rd among the approved imaging surveys. Full time allocation is recommended.
May 2017 - science Three observing nights allocated to complete the optical spectroscopy coverage of the Fornax cluster with AAT/2dF (PI Natasha Maddox)
Oct 2016 - jobs Two ERC-funded postdoc positions at INAF - Cagliari to work on the MeerKAT Fornax Survey. Deadline: 30 Nov 2016. See full job description and how to apply.
May 2016 - science Talk by Paolo Serra on Fornax at the MeerKAT science workshop in Stellenbosch. Lots of other talks on what science the community wants to do with MeerKAT. Plus a great radio continuum image from MeerKAT!
Nov 2015 - team ERC Starting Grant for the MeerKAT Fornax Survey! It will fund a research group based at INAF - Cagliari starting in 2016.