by WAGDY SAWAHEL Wagdy Sawahel
SOURCE/Algeria Press Service
Algeria is building the first astronomical observatory of its kind in the Maghreb region and the Arab world. The major observatory in Tamanrasset, which is located in the desert of the Hoggar region nearly 2,000 kilometres south of the capital Algiers, will be opened in 2019.
Based at the Centre for Research in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Geophysics, the observatory has been initiated by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research as a part of the national strategy for research and technology development, according to a 9 April report from the Algeria Press Service, or APS.
The astronomical observatory is being set up in collaboration with France’s Cote d’Azur Observatory, said APS.
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Status of astronomy in Arab universities
“Today, Arab astronomy barely registers on the world map. Scientific research is weak across the Arab world and astronomy weaker still,” according to an October 2013 report titled Astrophysics: Time for an Arab astronomy renaissance.
“Unlike countries of comparable gross domestic product per capita, such as Turkey, Israel and South Africa, most Arab nations are generating fewer than 10 papers in the field each year, and these are hardly cited.”
The report indicated that the number of astronomy and astrophysics papers as a proportion of science papers for the Arab world is three per 1,000. Citations for Arab articles in astronomy for 2000-09, which had a first author from an Arab country, were strikingly low with South Africa’s citation figures 20 times higher than those of the 22 Arab countries combined.
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