Geography of Angola: Landscapes, highlands, rivers, and climate

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Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a large country in southwestern Africa with diverse and dramatic geography. It ranks as the world’s 22nd-largest country by area, covering approximately 1,246,700 km² (481,400 sq mi)—roughly twice the size of Texas or France.

Location and borders

Angola lies on the western Atlantic coast of Southern Africa, between latitudes 4°22’S and 18°03’S, and longitudes 11°41’E and 24°05’E. Its 1,600–1,650 km (about 1,000 mi) coastline faces the Atlantic Ocean.

Neighbors:

  • Republic of the Congo (northwest, including the Cabinda exclave)
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo (north and northeast)
  • Zambia (southeast)
  • Namibia (south)

The … Continue

The geography of Algeria

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Algeria, officially the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, is the largest country in Africa and the tenth-largest in the world. It spans approximately 2,381,740 square kilometers (919,590 square miles), with more than 80% consisting of desert. Located in North Africa, it forms a key part of the Maghreb region.

A striking desert landscape unfolds under a vast, clear blue sky with faint wisps of clouds, dominated by a towering, weathered rock formation known as a mushroom rock or pedestal rock that rises prominently from the orange sands like a natural monument in Algeria’s Sahara Desert, its base broad and … Continue

Habitable exoplanets and the latest shortlists

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A recent astronomical study has identified 45 rocky exoplanets orbiting within the habitable zones of their stars, selected from more than 6,000 confirmed exoplanets. These represent prime targets in the ongoing search for conditions that could potentially support alien life.

The research, led by Professor Lisa Kaltenegger of Cornell University and published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in March 2026, utilized updated data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission and NASA’s Exoplanet Archive. It focused on planets with radii less than about twice that of Earth or masses below roughly five Earth masses—consistent with rocky … Continue