Mazlan Othman
Early Life
Mazlan Othman was born in Malaysia in 1951. She was very good at maths in school. This led her down a science path. She was set on doing physics. Othman earned her PhD at the University of Otago in astrophysics in 1981. She was the first woman to do this since it was founded in 1869.
Career Highlights
Othman joined the Prime Minister's Department in 1990. She set up and was head of the planetarium division. This then became the space science division in 1993. She became a professor of astrophysics at UKM in 1994.
Year born: 1951
Research Areas: Astrophysics
Essam Heggy
Early Life
Essam Heggy was born in the city of Tripoli in 1975. He got his high school diploma from Tunisia in the 1980s. Here, he also helped his father restore some Islamic monuments. His father was an artist.
Heggy then went on to study Astrophysics at Cairo University. Later, he went to Paris for his PhD. His PhD was in planetary science. This made him the first Egyptian PhD in Exoplanet Exploration. He studies the water on Mars in his work. NASA took notice of Heggy and invited him to join their team.
Year born: 1975
Research Areas: Deserts, Natural hazards, Space missions, Planets
Explore Tides
The ocean’s tides rise and fall every day, but have you ever wondered what causes them? The Moon and Sun both play a role in shaping the movement of water across the Earth.
Satellites
A satellite is an object which orbits another. An orbit is the curved path an object in space takes around another.
Space Stations
Did you know there are always humans in space?
Since 1971, men and women have been living for months at a time on space stations. These are spacecraft large enough for several astronauts to live there at once.
The Sun
The Sun is a star in the centre of our Solar System. It is the largest object and the only star in our Solar System. It is one of billions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
