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Astronomy: why should we reckon with the African continent?
Audio 13:47
A Kenyan boy looking through a telescope in the town of Oloika, Magadi, Kenya.
© Boniface Muthoni/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
By: Alexandra Cagnard Follow
2 mins
In recent years, initiatives have multiplied to develop astronomy on the African continent.
Why is it important to watch the sky in Africa?
What discoveries have been made in recent years from observations on the continent?
We discuss it with Caroline Lachowsky, journalist at RFI and presenter of the program
Autour de la question
.
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In this episode of
Witnesses to the news
,
Caroline Lachowsky
begins by explaining to us that the skies of Africa are much less polluted by light and that it is important to make observations there and to share them: "
It is both to give a taste for science, but also to give a taste for watching, sharing and creating a community of astronomers on the continent
”.
For the past four years, a partnership has existed with SSVI “Stars Shine For Everyone”, RFI and the journal
l'Astronomie Afrique.
It allows us to win an astronomical telescope on the African continent every quarter “
It exceeded all our expectations.
The winners have created networks, they communicate together in connection with professionals.
For example, the astrophysicist Marie Korsaga, will soon leave for the north of Burkina to bring back the astronomical telescopes and show the sky to the children, in a refugee camp
”.
Several discoveries have been made in recent years, continues Caroline “
Maram Kairé, the president of the astronomical association of Senegal was thus contacted by NASA to make occultation observations.
This is very important for launching rockets, for example, and it was used for the launch of the New Horizon probe.
There is also Zouhair Benkhaldoun, astrophysicist and director of the Oukaimeden Observatory in Morocco, who collaborated on a formidable discovery, that of the Trappist exoplanet system
”.
If South Africa is home to one of the largest observatories, there are also facilities in Ethiopia, Namibia, Senegal: "
The interest is to be part of the great collaboration of astrophysicists through the world that searches for the origin of the world.
Many countries are embarking on the race and many young people on the continent have understood the importance of training
”.
And Caroline Lachowsky to conclude: "
Yes, astronomy is on the right track on the continent, there is a real evolution which is part of an open-mindedness and finally, whether in astronomy, in neurosciences, in prehistory , we can collaborate and we can do small things in the field, which will become big things.
Men and women in Africa are very dynamic and we need observatories and observers in the North, as well as in the South
”.
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