SLOWLY, but surely, the science of Astronomy has begun to accrete in Black Africa. Though not yet a ?protoplanet??or even a ?planetesimal??it is clearly taking on mass and evolving into a recognised and respected body of knowledge.
Two recent indicators are prescient and promising. One is the formation, a few weeks ago, of the African Astronomical Society, at a Cape Town (South Africa) meeting of the International Astronomical Union, with a Nigerian as president.
The other is the interest sub-Saharan nations have begun to show in radio astronomy: A strategically important but distinctively unglamorous discipline. Radio telescopes do not produce colourful images of galaxies, nebula or solar system planets ?only raw data.
Yet Business Day?s Sarah Wild reports that Black countries are lining up to participate in the nascent African Very Long Base line Interferometor (AVLBI) project, which is emanating from South Africa. The idea is to create a continent-wide network of radio telescopes that will function as a single instrument.
This is a rather surprising development, on a part of the continent where most people cannot even say ?Very Long Base Line Interferometer,? much less explain what it is. Nevertheless, the African VLBI is supremely important and long overdue.
I will elaborate shortly. But first, I wish to congratulate Professor Pius Okeke, director of the Centre for Basic Space Science (CBSS), on his election as the Founding President of the African Astronomical Society.
Located at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, CBSS is an operational arm of Nigeria?s very active National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA). Okeke?s appointment is still another measure of the impact NASRDA has made, since President Obasanjo established it in 1999. I?ll have much more to say about the African Astronomical Society and its president in future columns. I?m being a bit reticent now, because of an impending interview Dr. Okeke?after which I should be able to provide greater detail.
Suffice it to say that the astronomers stock and trade, the main raw material with which he works, is light?so much so, that a telescope is often referred to in the trade as a ?light bucket?. That?s because it is used to trap light, which the investigator then analyses.
The astronomer?s analysis can yield information concerning not only the light-emitting object but also the area of space through which the radiation travels to reach Earth?information such as the density, velocity, temperature and chemistry of the gases or plasmas through which it passes.
Until the mid-20th century, ?light? meant ?visible? light, which is the type of radiation that is enabling you to read these lines. But visible (or ?white?) light is just one band on a broader array of wavelengths, known collectively as the electro-magnetic spectrum.
Starting from the shortest and most energetic forms of radiation, the electro-magnetic spectrum consists of gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet waves, visible light, infrared radiation and radio wavelengths.
There is a corresponding branch of astronomy, for each type of electro-magnetic radiation.
To be continued.
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