News
The APT is hosting the annual IPTA 2026 meeting in June this year
This annual conference of the International Pulsar Timing Array consortia will be taking place on African soil in 2026, from 15 - 26 June 2026. Join us for a Student Training week held at North West University campus, in Potchefstroom, followed by the Science Conference at Alpine Heath.
The conference will provide the latest science updates from the IPTA community in preparation towards its first significant nanoHz gravitational wave detection, while also highlighting a broader pulsar science programme designed to engage and benefit the local pulsar community.
Student Week: June 15 - 19 | Conference Week: June 22 - 26
Please see our conference website for more details and to complete your registration. Funding opportunities especially for students and early career scientists are available.
The APT is the latest member to join the International Pulsar Timing Array consortium.
In April this year, the current members of the International Pulsar Timing Array consortium, consisting of the leading Pulsar Timing Array research collaborations globally, signed into effect an agreement that sees the African Pulsar Timing (APT) group join their ranks.
The other PTA members include, the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA), the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), the Indian Pulsar Timing Array project (InPTA) and the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) in Australia.
The collective goal of these PTAs within the IPTA, now also including the APT, is to search for the characteristic signature of low-frequency gravitational waves disturbing the highly precise and periodic emmission of radio pulsars. Jointly these groups observe over 100 millisecond pulsars routinely, using the most sensitive radio telescopes in both the Southern and Northern Hemisphere.
The APT, working together with the MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array research group, will be contributing data from the sensitive African MeerKAT telescope to this project.
We are delighted to officially join the IPTA, and look forward to working within this dynamic international collaboration!
In record time, the MeerKAT PTA group has found evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave background!
The routine observing of a network of around 80 millisecond pulsars with the MeerKAT telescope over the last five years, has unveiled additional evidence for the presence of a low frequency gravitational wave background — the underlying stretching and squeezing of spacetime on which our planet Earth bobs.
The findings by the MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array group (MPTA) is an international effort, with contributors from Australian, European and South African institutes, including the University of Cape Town and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.
Congratulations to the APT members involved! Here is to a bright future of MeerKAT-driven pulsar science.
See the following press releases and sites for more information,
The series of three papers published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society can be found at,