The 19th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics concluded in the Vietnamese capital , Hanoi , on Sunday, October 4, 2026, with an Arab presence that ended with the honoring of Algeria and Saudi Arabia, while Iran imposed itself at the forefront of the competition after its five students returned with five gold medals, repeating its superiority that it achieved in the India session last year.
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The organizers had prepared telescopes, observation facilities, and a 16-meter diameter planetarium for the competition, making the test a combination of theoretical knowledge and the ability to deal with the sky, data, and instruments.
Algeria and Saudi Arabia place Arabs among those honored
Algeria achieved the most notable Arab result in the accompanying competitions, with its poster winning the award for best poster, head of the executive committee of the International Olympiad in Astronomy and Astrophysics. The organizing committee had previously announced that five teams would be honored in the poster competition as part of the special awards distributed at the closing ceremony.
As for Saudi Arabia, which participated with a team of students in the competitions, it left Hanoi with a certificate of appreciation, thus recording a second Arab presence among those honored in the individual competitions.
Three Arab countries participated in this year's competition: Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine . Although the Arab results have not yet rivaled those of the leading countries in the Olympiad, Algeria's winning the Best Poster award and Saudi Arabia receiving a certificate of appreciation indicate the ability of Arab teams to improve their presence in a competition that demands a high level of expertise in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and practical observation.
The Olympiad is not a competition for memorizing astronomical information; its tests measure the student’s ability to solve astrophysics problems, analyze real or observation-like data, recognize the sky and use telescopes, as well as work within a team.
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