20 April 2008
On the late evening of 2 April 2008, there were thin clouds across the western horizon in Alexandria, Egypt. The haze rendered the western sky and the setting Sun fascinating colors. BA Senior Astronomy Specialist Aymen Ibrahem imaged this amazing Sunset.
17 April 2008
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has imaged an incredible stellar explosion, blazing at an immense distance of over 7 billion light years, about halfway to the edge of the observable Universe. This is a type of fantastic cosmic explosions known as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), extremely luminous flashes of gamma rays and other radiations, often lasting a few minutes or less. They are believed to be the explosions of hefty stars that are up to 50 times more massive than the Sun.
16 April 2008
NASA has extended the highly successful Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn by two years. The historic spacecraft's stunning discoveries and incredible images have revolutionized our knowledge of Saturn and its large system of at least 60 moons.
15 April 2008
Observing with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the sophisticated giant Earth-based telescope Gemini South, astronomers have found evidence for a moderately massive black hole, residing within a spectacular star cluster. The cluster, known as Omega Centauri, is a huge spherical agglomeration of about 10 million stars. Such spherical gravitationally-bound stellar swarms are known as globular clusters.
14 April 2008
On 13 April 2008, the International Space Station (ISS) flew over Egypt, during evening twilight. The ISS was visible to the unaided eye as a very bright white star, gliding slowly among the star patterns. Observing the graceful spaceflight from the BA Plaza, BA Senior Astronomy Specialist Aymen Ibrahem took exciting images of the orbiting outpost.
13 April 2008
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) recently imaged powerful X-ray emitting jets emanating from an energetic young star. The star, known as DG Tau, is estimated to be only one million years old (the Solar System is believed to have formed about 4,500 million years ago). It is located in the Taurus star-forming region, about 450 light years away.
09 April 2008
On 8 April 2008, the 17th Expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) was launched into space aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The crew consists of Commander Sergei Volkov, Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko and spaceflight participant So-yeon Yi, the first astronaut from South Korea.
06 April 2008
On 5 April 2008, magnificent patterns of high clouds drifted for hours, over Cairo, Egypt. BA Senior Astronomy Specialist, Aymen Ibrahem, recorded the fascinating optical atmospheric phenomena that are usually associated with high clouds, including Sun halos and mock Suns. Ibrahem took unique images showing Sun halos and mock Suns glowing over the mighty Pyramids of Giza.
30 March 2008
NASA recently published an exquisite image of the dazzling debris of an exploding star (supernova), located in a nearby galaxy, known as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Actually, the supernova remnant, known as N132D, is the brightest stellar remains in the LMC, and is extraordinarily rich in oxygen. It is theorized that the oxygen we breathe originated in similar stellar explosions.
28 March 2008
NASA's Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft examined and sampled a surprising organic brew erupting in geyser-like phenomenon from Saturn's moon Enceladus during a close flyby on 12 March 2008. Scientists are amazed by the geologic activity and chemical composition of this small moon.