Astronomy in Africa- News and Updates

Lightning over West Africa; Credit: ESA/NASA

• NASA has just released an image (above) of a lightning flash over West Africa, as seen from the International Space Station.
• The chairman of Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics has just announced that the Islamic holy month of Ramadan will begin on July 20 this year. The starting point of the holy month is determined according to astronomical calculations.

Astronomy in Africa- News and Updates

Satellite in Kuntunse to be converted for radio astronomy Credit: SKA Africa

• Last week, Ghana launched a Space Science and Technology Centre in Kuntunse to develop projects and programs in the field of astronomy, astrophysics, and more. The South African Department of Science and Technology and Vodafone have supported the establishment of this center and the development of the Ghana Radio Astronomy Project, which would collect data through the Kuntunse station as part of a network of antennas around the world.

• South African Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, will next week become the first entrepreneur to dock his own orbiter, Dragon, with the International Space Station. With no formal training in rocketry, Musk is a “self-taught” designer. SpaceX “aims to develop a family of launch vehicles which will ultimately reduce the cost and increase the reliability of space access by a factor of ten.”

Astronomy in Africa- News and Updates

East African Rift Valley, as seen from space Credit: NASA

• Crew members aboard Expedition 30 of the International Space Station took this photo of the East African Rift Valley in Kenya, located near its border with Tanzania. In this image, you can see numerous linear fault lines that occupy the floor of the valley; the rift was formed by a fracturing of Earth’s crust. Shadows cast by the late afternoon sun make the fault scarps (steps in the landscape caused by slip motion along individual faults) more prominent. The rift is also home to numerous active and dormant volcanoes.

• This month, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, the South-African National Research Foundation, and IBM signed a memorandum of understanding on joint research into advanced ICT (information and communication technologies) targeted at radio astronomy. Jasper Horrell, the South African leader on the project: “This collaboration fits very well in the ambitions of South-Africa to strengthen our international networks and intensify our collaboration with industry.”