The cosmos is still to be discovered and certainly it will not be possible to get to the head of most of its infinite secrets, if we can only have an idea: explains
Michel Mayor
, the Swiss scientist who has gone so far in the knowledge of the universe ahead of the others.
He discovered in 1995 the first exoplanet, called "51 Pegasi b", and also for this he obtained the Nobel Prize in physics last year.
Another prize has now been awarded to him by the Gal Hassin astronomical observatory in Isnello, a village in the Madonie, Sicily, which with its pole wanted and supported by the Italian scientific community has become the capital of astronomy for two days.
Mayor, welcomed with a lot of honorary citizenship, met numerous scholars and scientists of INAF, the national institute of astrophysics which in Isnello has chosen its own scientific reference point since the time of Margherita Hack.
The physicist was called to talk about the different "worlds of the universe".
And he said that, despite giant advances, "there is still a lot to do" to learn more about the stars, planets and biomarkers that can tell us if, outside the Earth, there are life forms.
The studies have gone a long way but, according to Mayor,
"signals from other galaxies come to us to interpret and investigate".
The Swiss scientist then pointed out the great difficulties in acquiring images and information on what is happening in the most distant planets.
"We have signals - he said - that come from galaxies even 30 light years away. It is impossible to think of reaching them. We can only think of 'passive observation' from Earth with increasingly powerful telescopes".
And two of these latest generation telescopes will soon be installed above Isnello, on top of Mount Mufara.