15 January 2009
NASA recently published a stunning picture showing the vast royal necropolis of Sakkara, where the pyramids of some of Egypt’s greatest kings were built. The detailed image was taken by astronauts working aboard the International Space Station, on 31 October 2008. The pyramids in the photo include the Step Pyramid of King Djoser (2635-2610 BC), the first Egyptian pyramid ever built, the pyramid of King Userkaf (2465-2458 BC), the pyramid of King Teti (2345-2333 BC) and the pyramids of Abusir.
24 December 2008
Earthrise is the name given to a historic NASA image, taken by astronaut William Anders, during the Apollo 8 mission, the first manned space mission to orbit the Moon.
20 December 2008
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has acquired a stunning image of Jupiter, the largest planet, and its largest moon, Ganymede. The picture shows Ganymede (5,250 km across) just before disappearing beyond its colorful giant parent planet.
02 December 2008
On 1 December 2008, the western evening sky featured a spectacular cosmic alignment: two planets were shining brightly, very near to the Crescent Moon, a phenomenon known as conjunction. The planets were Venus, Earth’s “Twin Planet”, and Jupiter, the largest planet. The conjunction was easily visible to the unaided eye, from almost the entire world. Observing during a PSC star party, near Alexandria, Egypt, BA Senior Astronomy Specialist Aymen Ibrahem took numerous images of the eye-catching spectacle.
27 November 2008
On 23 November 2008, the Iridium 32 satellite flew over Alexandria, Egypt. Observing from the BA Plaza, BA Senior Astronomy Specialist Aymen Ibrahem photographed the satellite, which was visible to the unaided eye as a flaring star-like object. Interestingly, Iridium 32 passed near the planets Jupiter and Venus, now in conjunction in the western evening sky.
25 November 2008
NASA is officially has begun a mission to conduct an unprecedented, in-depth study of Jupiter, the largest planet.
20 November 2008
On 20 November 1998, construction of the International Space Station (ISS), the largest spacecraft ever flown into space, began with the launch of the Russian-built, US-funded Zarya module. The launch was the beginning of a complex, sophisticated international space project .
15 November 2008
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have taken the first visible-light images of a planet orbiting another star. The images show the planet as a tiny point source of light, near its bright parent star, known as Fomalhaut فم الحوت. The Fomalhaut system is located 25 light-years away, in the constellation Piscis Australis الحوت الجنوبي. The planet is designated Fomalhaut b; the star’s name comes from Arabic.
06 November 2008
The Hubble Space telescope (HST) is back in operation, and it aimed its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) at a bizarre pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies, known as Arp 147. For about 4 weeks, HST was offline, in a safe protective mode, due to a malfunction that occurred in late September. The image was taken on 27 October, a couple of days after the Hubble repair, and it demonstrates that the WFPC2 is operating normally.
04 November 2008
On the evening of 4 November 2008, the sky of Alexandria, Egypt, was mostly clear. BA Senior Astronomy Specialist Aymen Ibrahem conducted interesting observation of sunset and the evening twilight’s colors. His images show flickering fascinating purplish hues over the western horizon, rather than the yellow–red or orange-reddish glow of twilight. These unusual hues are due to the patchy clouds, which consist of volcanic ash, hurled into the stratosphere by the powerful eruption of the Kasatochi Volcano, Alaska, USA.