In October last year, the new Universe Awareness National Coordinator for Sudan organised events for World Space Week 2017. NC Yasir Abbas shared the resources he used, which are now available for the Universe Awareness network.
As the first activity for UNAWE in Sudan, National Coordinator Yasir Abbas presented a seminar with the title ‘The Search of Life in the Solar System.’ The presentation was attended by +40 persons, some students, researchers and amateurs. “It contained simple, scientific talk about the possibility of life in the Solar System, and the research carried out by planetary scientists in addition to the ongoing activities in the field.”
Presentation 'The Search of Life in the Solar System' by Yasir Abbas.
The presentation tried to answer the question: ‘What do we search for?’ “As there is no agreed and clear definition of life itself, there are some general signs of life researchers are trying to find.”
Another topic that was raised is how Earth’s history provides information that helps us develop better methods for our search of life in space. “We talked about the different type of energy harvesting methods used directly or indirectly by microbes, such as photosynthesis and chemosynthesis.”
A discussion about the necessity of having liquid water also emerged. Within the seminar, Mars, Europa, Enceladus and Titan were given as examples of potential environments in the Solar System that could support life.
Some of the attendees of the WSW2017 seminar in Sudan.
Although the attendees had more awareness of space than the general public, there were misunderstandings of some concepts and some missing pieces of information. “Around half of the attendees thought there is no water (H2O) outside of Earth. Many believed the habitable zones can only be found around stars that are exactly the same as our Sun with terrestrial planets exactly like Earth.”
Yasir concludes his report that the presentation did a great job in correcting some perspectives and creating more awareness of the Universe we live in. (You can find the presentation by clicking the link below.)
A few years ago, Sudan joined the worldwide celebration of World Space Week. Its organizations started to show a high level of interest and commitment to participate in the event. ISRA Center is the lead institute that organizes the week activities with help of other parties in Sudan. National Coordinator Yasir Abbas is working towards the creation of Space Clubs in Sudan for young students with interest in astronomy, science and technology.
Links
- Presentation 'Search of Life In The Solar System' by Yasir Abbas.
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