Speech of the Head of Astronomy and Space Science Department

       Iraq is the cradle of sciences and civilizations, where historians have unanimously agreed throughout the ages that Iraq has been succeeded by civilizations that have bequeathed to the world sciences of astronomy, mathematics and other sciences that were and still facilitate people’s lives, and among the ancient civilizations that took care of these sciences are the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Chaldeans, and those who came after them Of the countries and dynasties that ruled the land of blackness.

      In the last decades of the history of Iraq, the interest in space sciences and astronomy began early and more than five decades ago, as we mention, but are not limited to, some examples. In a report by Al-Jazeera channel, an article published in 2021 shows that Iraq 32 years ago, and in the first Arab experiment, launched a missile Al-Abed into space, and it is considered the first Arab missile that can carry satellites, and it is also considered one of the strategic missiles with a range of two thousand kilometers, and it is mainly intended for communications and reconnaissance, meaning that Iraq 3 decades ago was able to manufacture the first Arab missile capable of carrying satellites to their orbits In outer space, with Iraqi capabilities and timely local efforts. After two failed experiments, Iraq announced the successful test launch of the missile on December 5, 1989 from Anbar Air Base, to enter the country into space.

In June 2014, Iraq launched the Tigrisat satellite (TigriSat), and this satellite was completed in cooperation with the Italian University of La Spianza, where a mission consisting of three Iraqi ministry employees joined a 14-month course, after which they were granted a master’s degree in satellite technology. This satellite is intended for research purposes in the field of desertification and dust, and the satellite takes live pictures and sends them to a ground base that undertakes to analyze and benefit from its data. It also transmits images to two ground stations, one located in Rome and the other in Baghdad. The launch took place from the Yazni space in the Federal Republic of Russia, aboard the Dnieper missile, on Thursday, 19/6/2014. The Ministry of Science and Technology announced on 11/7/2014 that the first signals of the first Iraqi satellite, TigriSat, had been received by the station. The ground prepared for this in Baghdad, stressing that this encouraged it to study the possibility of launching a larger satellite.

In 1990, the precise scientific direction began to build scientific staff specialized in space sciences and astronomy through a scientific research unit that was associated with the Scientific Research Council at that time and was linked to the College of Science, University of Baghdad, and it was administratively linked to the Deanship of the College and scientifically to the Department of Physics. Instead of the Astronomy Research Unit, it became one of the scientific departments of the College of Science, and it is the only department of its kind in Iraqi universities that grants an academic degree in space sciences and astronomy. Since then, the department has begun to grant a bachelor’s degree in the field of space sciences and astronomy, which qualifies graduates of the department to work in all fields related to this specialization, such as specialized research centers, astronomical observatories, and scientific care centers, as well as work in the field of astronomical observations, space technologies, data analysis, satellite images, and various other sciences related to various space and astronomy programs, in addition to the graduate’s possession of a sufficient amount of information that qualifies him to work in various scientific institutions.

  The department has also developed various specializations in postgraduate studies, and many students graduated with postgraduate degrees (Master’s and Ph.D Degrees) and with the following specializations:

1- Radio astronomy

2- Optical astronomy

3-Orbitals

4- Astronomical Nuclear Physics

5- Astrophysics

6- Space physics

       The department includes a teaching staff in the field of astronomy and space who hold PhD and Master Degrees with various scientific ranks. This staff contributes to teaching and supervising postgraduate students and research projects for fourth-year students.

      In recent years, the pace of constructive scientific communication has begun to rise in the department with various scientific institutions outside and inside the country, including international universities such as the University of Bonn and Cologne in Germany, Cairo University in Egypt, and many other international and Arab universities and institutions. The department has also become an observer member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and a number of staff joined to the union; and locally, communication and cooperation took place with many institutions, including the Iraqi Sunni Affairs, as well as the Directorate General of Scientific Welfare in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, from which many wonderful youth teams emerged interested in astronomy and astronomical observation, and directed Iraqi youth to constructive scientific work to raise the scientific process in our country.

The professors of the department, in cooperation with researchers and professors from various state institutions, seek to see the light of important projects at the national level, including the Baghdad Planetarium in Al-Zawraa, as well as striving to establish an Iraqi space agency so that Iraq takes a leading role in the future in the fields of space science and technology, as it was throughout the ages.

Assist. Prof. Dr. Abdullah Kamil Ahmed

Head of Astronomy and Space Science Dept.