Morocco's Cadi Ayyad University, NASA Explore Extrasolar Planets

Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech, in collaboration with NASA and Harvard University, has recently furthered scientific research by exploring extrasolar planets.

The Moroccan-American scientific team consisted of Cadi Ayyad’s Laboratory of High-Energy Physics and Astrophysics and Oukaimeden Observatory, the NASA Virtual Planetary Laboratory, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The international team studied the climate of extrasolar planets.

The results of the research will appear in a prestigious scientific journal, “The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.” The Oxford University Press-owned journal has been a leading astronomy journal for more than 190 years.

The scientific team concluded that planets positioned outside the solar system may have a water climate, which would put them in contrast to dwarf-type planets. Dwarf planets are astronomical objects that have a mass similar to that of a planet but, contrary to regular planets, they do not dominate any region in space.

NASA will further research the possibility of discovering water on the planets outside of the solar system by sending the Space Telescope for closer observations.

Cadi Ayyad University’s Oukaimeden Observatory, located in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, has a record of successes in the field of observing planets outside the solar system.

In 2016, the Trappest-1 system went online. An abbreviation for the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope, the Trappest-1 marks is one of two Belgian optic robotic telescopes. Morocco is home to the northern telescope, while the southern telescope is located in Chile. In their short joined existence, the telescopes helped discover two major comets and a near-Earth object.

The Oukaimeden Observatory is a source of great prestige for the Cadi Ayyad University. Although relatively young, the university is regarded as a leading scientific and technological institution in Morocco with more than 1,400 research professors and 146 research facilities.