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The development of the South African deep space ground station in Matiesfontein, Western Cape, was confirmed on Monday. This confirmation followed a visit by the CEO of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), Humbulani Mudau, to Lingstberg.

Funding and Project Goals

This national infrastructure project is funded by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI). SANSA reported that the meeting between Mudau and representatives of the Matiesfontein community focused on reviewing the progress of work and strengthening cooperation as construction advances.

During the interaction, the common goal was emphasized—to position South Africa as a globally competitive space power while ensuring local communities benefit from the economic, educational, and social opportunities created by this significant national investment.

Significance for Science and Economy

Mudau noted that the Matiesfontein deep space station represents more than just critical national infrastructure. He stated that it is an investment in South Africa's scientific leadership, technological independence, and future competitiveness in the global space economy.

Furthermore, Mudau added that by strengthening sovereign space capabilities, the facility will create opportunities for skills development, innovation, education, and economic participation for surrounding communities. He stressed that achieving this vision depends on strong partnerships with municipalities, local leadership, and residents, who are integral to the project.

Regional Development and Education

SANSA reported that during discussions with municipal officials, a long-term concept of the Matiesfontein facility as a catalyst for regional development and inclusive economic growth was presented. Opportunities to stimulate local economic activity were highlighted through skills development, public infrastructure initiatives, scientific education, and greater participation in South Africa's growing space sector.

SANSA particularly emphasized inspiring youth, especially young women and girls, to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and innovation (STEMI), which will help shape the country's future scientific workforce. The agency noted that the project offers a chance to raise public awareness about South Africa's space program while creating long-term value for communities in the Karoo region.

Agreements with Local Authorities

The Municipality of Lingstberg confirmed its successful experience supporting major strategic infrastructure projects, including renewable energy projects in the region and the modernization of the N1 transport corridor, and expressed its willingness to continue supporting the successful implementation of the SANSA project. Both parties agreed that transparent and consistent engagement with local communities will remain vital throughout the construction phase.

SANSA added that clear communication regarding employment opportunities, procurement processes, and community benefits will help manage expectations, build trust, and ensure the project delivers meaningful and inclusive outcomes. The meeting also reinforced the shared understanding that successful national infrastructure projects are built on strong partnerships between government, municipalities, communities, and industry.

Completion Schedule and Future of the Station

SANSA reported that the construction of the deep space station remains on schedule, with completion expected within the next 18–24 months, while the project continues to adhere to the highest standards of engineering, construction, and quality. The agency clarified that the facility is fully funded by the South African Government through DSTI and represents a substantial investment in South Africa's sovereign space infrastructure.

Once operational, the ground station will enhance South Africa's deep space communication capabilities, supporting international scientific collaboration in a manner that advances South Africa's strategic national interests. SANSA concluded the meeting with the Municipality of Lingstberg, affirming a shared commitment to ensuring the project brings long-term scientific, economic, and social value to both the region and the country. The agency envisioned Matiesfontein becoming one of South Africa's leading science and technology hubs in the space industry.

Astronomers have hypothesized the existence of a large moon orbiting the well-known star Tabby, which could be either a giant exoplanet or a brown dwarf. This suspicion was supported by an event resembling a transit. If this discovery is confirmed, it may help explain the irregular and unusual dips in the star's brightness, caused by swarms of small objects moving towards the star under the gravitational influence of this planetary-mass companion. The full text of the study is available on the arXiv.org platform.

The History of the Mysterious Star Tabby

For a long time, KIC 8462852 was considered a typical main-sequence star, classified as F3V and located 1470 light-years from the Sun. However, in 2015, astronomers recorded unusual, prolonged, and uneven changes in the star's brightness that had no obvious explanation. Since then, Tabby's star, named after the leader of the scientific group that first noted this variability, has remained one of the unresolved problems in astrophysics.

Possible Explanations for the Dimming

Many hypotheses were proposed to explain the multiple, asymmetric, and irregular drops in the star's brightness: these could be transits of exocomets, clusters of Trojan asteroids, rings of debris formed by the tidal forces of a large planetesimal or protoplanet, the presence of a stellar companion, a compact object, or a brown dwarf, manifestations of stellar activity (such as spots or plasma ejections), or even hypothetical astroengineering structures like a Dyson sphere. Although none of these versions has been definitively proven, theories about the transits of families of small bodies, rings, and associated objects seemed the most promising.

Data Analysis and Transit Detection

A team of astronomers led by Christine Madourga-Favier from the University of Warwick focused on studying the applicability of transit models to the behavior of Tabby's star. To do this, they analyzed photometric observation data collected by the TESS space telescope, as well as radial velocity variation data obtained using the HARPS, SOPHIE, and HERMES spectrographs. The study covered the period from 2015 to 2025, including the use of archival data from the Kepler telescope and ground-based observatories.

TESS data revealed an interesting symmetric dip in brightness of 1.1 percent, lasting about 21 hours and occurring on September 3, 2019. This phenomenon is best described as the transit of a large body across the star's disk, whereas other options, such as asteroid group transits, exocomets, dust clouds, or stellar activity, do not fit. Similar events were not found in Kepler or ground telescope records, nor could they have been caused by a dim red dwarf orbiting Tabby's star at a wide orbit (projected distance of about 885 astronomical units).

Characteristics of the Proposed Companion

The study of radial velocity variations allowed researchers to focus on the model of a transit candidate. This object is estimated to have a mass of about 9.4 Jupiter masses (with an upper limit of 28 Jupiter masses) and a radius of 1.7 Jupiter radii, placing it in the transition zone between gas giants and brown dwarfs. Furthermore, the calculated bulk density (2.2 g/cm³) and equilibrium temperature (268 K) are more consistent with the model of a large exoplanet than a substellar object. The candidate's orbit must be at a distance of approximately 0.005 arcseconds from the star, corresponding to a slightly eccentric orbit (eccentricity 0.09) with a semi-major axis of 2.35 astronomical units and a period of at least 1030 days.

Conclusions and Future Research

Although only one recorded transit and significant scatter in the radial velocity data do not provide sufficient confidence to confirm the presence of a planetary-mass companion, the statistical significance of the calculated physical parameters is only 2.3 sigma. Nevertheless, the presence of such a body is consistent with the distribution of properties of giant exoplanets around stars and may explain the infall of streams of exocomets or fragments of planetesimals causing irregular dips in brightness through gravitational perturbations. The presence of dust around this companion is also not ruled out. Scientists believe that confirming a planetary-nature moon is possible using astrometric data from the Gaia fourth catalog, and a more precise determination of its characteristics will require data from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes.

Tabby's star is one of the first examples of observing exotic dimmings; subsequently, scientists were able to observe transits of exocomets, dust rings, and brown dwarfs surrounded by them around their stars. It is also worth noting that ground-based telescopes VLT and Gemini-North recorded a decrease in wind speeds on seven ultra-hot Jupiters as the equilibrium temperature increased, which, according to estimates, may be explained by the braking effect of a planetary magnetic field whose strength is comparable to the fields of Jupiter and Saturn. This article was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.