28 October 2008
Currently, Northern Hemisphere observers are experiencing a fascinating celestial phenomenon: sunsets and evening twilights are tinted in hues of purple, rather than the common reddish hues.
21 October 2008
On the morning of 21 October 2008, the International Space Station (ISS) flew over Alexandria. Intriguingly, the planets Mercury and Saturn were also visible in the morning sky. BA Senior Astronomy Specialist Aymen Ibrahem photographed the ISS while it was gliding over the BA. The Library’s beautiful building appears as the foreground object of the images.
15 October 2008
When Comet Holmes abruptly erupted in 2007, professional and amateur astronomers worldwide pointed their telescopes toward the spectacular phenomenon. The enquiry was to find out why the comet had suddenly exploded.
29 September 2008
On the evening of 18 September 2008, the European Jules Verne spacecraft, also known as ATV, flew over Egypt. Jules Verne was visible to the unaided eye as a drifting star-like object. It gracefully crossed the sky, from the western horizon to the eastern horizon, in about 4 minutes! The unmanned spacecraft is orbiting Earth at an altitude of approximately 340 km.
23 September 2008
On 22 September, at 15:44 UTC, the Sun passed the autumnal equinox, and autumn began.
18 September 2008
On 17 September 2008, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced that the object previously known as 2003 EL61 is to be classified as the fifth dwarf planet in the Solar System and named Haumea, after the mythological Hawaiian goddess of childbirth and fertility.
17 September 2008
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has captured a rare alignment between two spiral galaxies. The outer rim of a small, foreground galaxy is visible in silhouette, in front of a larger background galaxy.
13 September 2008
A new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) reveals stellar evolution amidst a rich population of stars. The exquisite infrared picture shows a colorful nebula (cosmic cloud), known as W5, studded with multiple generations of dazzling stars.
10 September 2008
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected a faint arc of material around Saturn. The arc is associated with a small Saturnian moon, known as Anthe. Cassini has further confirmed the existence of another arc orbiting Saturn with another moon, Methone. This is new evidence that most of Saturn's small, inner moons orbit within partial or complete rings.
06 September 2008
On 5 September 2008, the European spacecraft Rosetta flew by a small asteroid (minor planet), known as Steins (4.5 km across). The spacecraft came to within only 800 km from the asteroid at closest approach. The interplanetary encounter occurred at a distance of approximately 360 million km from Earth. Intriguingly, the images acquired by Rosetta during the flyby show Steins to be diamond-shaped.