No Arabic abstract
This paper contains an overview and summary on the achievements of the United Nations basic space science initiative in terms of donated and provided planetariums, astronomical telescopes, and space weather instruments, particularly operating in developing nations. This scientific equipment has been made available to respective host countries, particularly developing nations, through the series of twenty basic space science workshops, organized through the United Nations Programme on Space Applications since 1991. Organized by the United Nations, the European Space Agency (ESA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States of America, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the basic space science workshops were organized as a series of workshops that focused on basic space science (1991-2004), the International Heliophysical Year 2007 (2005-2009), and the International Space Weather Initiative (2010-2012) proposed by the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space on the basis of discussions of its Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, as reflected in the reports of the Subcommittee.
The United Nations Programme on Space Applications, implemented by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, promotes the benefits of space-based solutions for sustainable economic and social development. The Programme assists Member States of the United Nations to establish indigenous capacities for the use of space technology and its applications. In the past the Programme has primarily been focusing on the use of space applications and on basic space science activities. However, in recent years there has been a strong interest in a growing number of space-using countries to build space technology capacities, for example, the ability to develop and operate small satellites. In reaction to this development, the United Nations in cooperation with the International Academy of Astronautics has been organizing annual workshops on small satellites in the service of developing countries. Space technology related issues have also been addressed as part of various other activities of the Programme on Space Applications. Building on these experiences, the Office for Outer Space Affairs is now considering the launch of a new initiative, preliminarily titled the United Nations Basic Space Technology Initiative (UNBSTI), to promote basic space technology development. The initiative would be implemented in the framework of the Programme on Space Applications and its aim would be to help building sustainable capacities for basic space technology education and development, thereby advancing the operational use of space technology and its applications.
In 2010, the Human Space Technology Initiative (HSTI) was launched by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) within the United Nations Programme on Space Applications. The Initiative aims at promoting international cooperation in human spaceflight and space exploration-related activities, creating awareness among countries on the benefits of utilizing human space technology and its applications, and building capacity in microgravity education and research. HSTI has conducted a series of outreach activities and expert meetings bringing together participants from around the world. HSTI will also be implementing science and educational activities in relevant areas to raise the capacities, particularly in developing countries, in pursuit of the development goals of the United Nations, thus contributing to promoting the peaceful uses of outer space.
The almost universal availability of electronic connectivity, portable devices, and the web is bringing about a major revolution: information of all kinds is rapidly becoming accessible to everyone, transforming social, economic and cultural life practically everywhere in the world. Internet technologies represent an unprecedented and extraordinary two-way channel of communication between producers and users of data. Open Universe is an initiative proposed to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and currently in implementation under the leadership of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UN-OOSA). Its primary objective is to stimulate a dramatic increase in the availability and usability of space science data, extending the potential of scientific discovery to new participants in all parts of the world. This paper describes the initiative in general, some of the activities carried out to demonstrate its feasibility, and its use in the context of the BRICS Astronomy Programme.
Since 1990, the United Nations in cooperation with the European Space Agency is holding annually a workshop on basic space science for the benefit of the worldwide development of astronomy. These workshops have been held in countries of Asia and the Pacific (India, Sri Lanka), Latin America and the Caribbean (Costa Rica, Colombia, Honduras), Africa (Nigeria), Western Asia (Egypt, Jordan), and Europe (Germany, France). Additional to the scientific benefits of the workshops and the strengthening of international cooperation, the workshops lead to the establishment of astronomical telescope facilities in Colombia, Egypt, Honduras, Jordan, Morocco, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Uruguay. The annual UN/ESA Workshops continue to pursue an agenda to network these astronomical telescope facilities through similar research and education programmes. Teaching material and hands-on astrophysics material has been developed for the operation of such astronomical telescope facilities in an university environment.
We make use of the IllustrisTNG cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations to test fundamental assumptions of the mass-based Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) approach to modelling the galaxy-halo connection. By comparing the clustering of galaxies measured in the 300 Mpc TNG box (TNG300) with that predicted by the standard (``basic) HOD model, we find that, on average, the ``basic HOD model underpredicts the real-space correlation function in the TNG300 box by $sim$ 15% on scales of $1 {rm Mpc}/h < r < 20 {rm Mpc}/h$, which is well beyond the target precision demanded of next-generation galaxy redshift surveys. We perform several tests to establish the robustness of our findings to systematic effects, including the effect of finite box size and the choice of halo finder. In our exploration of ``secondary parameters with which to augment the ``basic HOD, we find that the local environment of the halo, the velocity dispersion anisotropy, $beta$, and the product of the half-mass radius and the velocity dispersion, $sigma^2 R_{rm halfmass}$, are the three most effective measures of assembly bias that help reconcile the ``basic HOD-predicted clustering with that in TNG300. In addition, we test other halo properties such as halo spin, formation epoch and halo concentration. We also find that at fixed halo mass, galaxies in one type of environment cluster differently from galaxies in another. We demonstrate that a more complete model of the galaxy-halo connection can be constructed if we combine both mass and local environment information about the halo.