Welcome to "Innumerabili mondi" Astronomical Observatory of Arpino (Italy)

"Esistono infiniti Soli, innumerabili mondi che ruotano intorno a questi Soli, similmente a come i sette pianeti ruotano intorno al nostro Sole. Questi mondi sono abitati da esseri viventi." / "There are infinite Suns, innumerable worlds that revolve around these Suns, just as the seven planets revolve around our Sun. These worlds are inhabited by living beings."

Welcome to the Astronomical Observatory "Innumerabili Mondi" website, whose name takes inspiration from these words, included in "De l'infinito universo et Mondi" by Giordano Bruno (1584). Bruno, not the first, but probably the most famous, envisioned the existence of extrasolar planets in a geocentric era. Despite being a philosopher rather than a scientist, I believe he deserves all our admiration for having "imagined" what was scientifically demonstrated only many centuries later.

 

Oh, yes, the Earth and the other 7 planets (*) are not the only ones to rotate around a star. To date, over 6,000 exoplanets have been discovered in our galaxy, the Milky Way, alone. Obviously there are billions of them in the universe... It is therefore legitimate to think that one of these exoplanets could host some form of life, may have hosted it in the past, or may host it in the future... intelligent life? I think so.

In recent years, my passion for astronomy has returned stronger than ever, also thanks to the astrophysicist and archaeoastronomer Paolo Colona, ​​through the organization of the Accademia delle stelle.

(*) Surely you have noticed that Giordano Bruno mentions 7 planets including the Earth while today we know that they are 8. At that time, in fact, the ice giants Uranus and Neptune were not known because they were invisible to the naked eye. Furthermore, the Moon was considered a planet, although, as everyone knows today, it is actually a satellite of the Earth.