UAE resident co-discovers billion-year-old planets

Abu Dhabi - A self-made astronomer Nezar has spent around Dh2m on his passion of buying telescopes and building observatories.

What started as a fascination with moon, stars, planets and space soon became a passion for Abu Dhabi resident and amateur astronomer Nezar Hezam Sallam, who along with his team, has co-discovered two planets that formed about a billion years ago outside the solar system, orbiting around a single star.

This is the first such discovery by a UAE resident that has at once placed the emirate of Abu Dhabi in the scientific astronomical journal of the American Astronomical Society (Astronomical Journal), which has international accreditation for astronomical discoveries and research in the world and is recognised by the American Space Agency, Nasa.

A self-made astronomer Nezar has spent around two million dirhams on his passion of buying telescopes and building observatories since 1998 when he first set up his mobile observatory. Currently, he owns the biggest astronomical observatory in the Middle East called the Emirates Astronomical Observatory and also has around three mobile observatories that are all fixed with hi-tech telescopes, cameras, latest software and other related gadgets. Although a computer engineer by profession who works with the Abu Dhabi Police, Nezar said he fell in love with the celestial world when he was seven years old.

“Since I couldn’t become an astronaut, I thought why not become an astronomer, for which I did a number of courses to get a better understanding of telescopes, space and the universe. Astronomy is my life and I have more than 100 telescopes placed in my different observatories, including the best one in the UAE.”

After completing his 7 hour work shift, Nezar ensures he invests around five hours every day in his observatories and also does a number of projects with the Emirates Space Agency and Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre. The passion of Nezar for astronomy can be gauged by the fact that he named his first daughter Sama, which in Arabic means sky.

Speaking about the discovery, Nezar told Khaleej Times: “I along with my team of around 20 astronomers (our group is called worldwide valuable star hunters group) all based outside the UAE except me, made the discovery of the two planets - HD 63433 c and HD 63433 b - through his observatory in Al Rahba area with the help of data provided by the The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a kind of satellite that observes stars in the sky for 27 days.