Opening of the month of science, three weeks of appointments at Modena events in Modena

What do we know about the universe? This is the question that prompts “The second star on the right…”, 2021 edition of month of knowledgeReview of the scientific culture promoted by the historical libraries and archives of the Municipality of Modena and which, From 5 to 27 NovemberIt offers children and adults a fascinating journey between astronomy and astrophysics. In the year of Dante’s festivities, the wonders of “seeing the stars” offer an itinerary consisting of books, games, experiments and notes from the smallest to the infinite as well as encounters with heroes, rotating in attendance, respecting safety rules in the fight against Covid, and the Internet, all for free.

The program opens Friday 5 NovemberAt 6.30 pm, at the Crocetta Library, with “An Astronomical Journey Among the Mysteries of the Universe” led by Andrea Simati, Director of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Bologna and author of the popular text “The Dark Universe” ”, and by Rita Fiorisi, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Bologna. The meeting will try to provide answers To many intriguing things about the universe, starting with: How big is the universe? Who is it made of? Where are we? What are the stars? And how far are they?

Saturday 6 November, the appointment, this time only online on Facebook and Twitter (@bibliotechemodena), with “Lady Comets” Amalia Ercole Venzi: The first woman in Italy to graduate in aeronautical engineering in 1962, was a professor of orbit mechanics at Politecnico in Milan and worked with NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), where she led the Rosetta mission from 2004 to 2014. With her, her youngest of five children, Elvina, and herself a research professor in nuclear engineering, with whom she wrote her autobiography “Beyond the Farthest Stars. Two Generations of Astronomers in the Family.” The meeting will be moderated by physicist and journalist Gianluca Dutti.

“The second star on the right…” continues with events open to all Friday 12 November With the astrobiology meeting “Is there life in the universe?” ; Thursday, November 18, in the Oratory Room of the Palazzo dei Musei, astronomy historian Fabrizio Bonoli will deepen the topic of astronomy in Dante’s time, while Thursday 25 November Astrophysicists Ilaria Arosio and Gianluca Dotti will attempt to answer the question “What are the benefits of stars?”. The last two events designed for everyone, vFriday 26 and Saturday 27 NovemberOpen Lab: On both days, young and old will be able to participate in “Four Steps to Space”, interactive labs and non-stop presentations for physics, earth sciences, chemistry and biology, coordinated by Rossella Brunetti of UniMoRe, while on Saturday the 27th at 6.30 In the evening, astrophysicist and poet Luca Perry will explain “Star Wars science.”

The online labs of Maura Sandri, a researcher at the National Institute of Astrophysics, are designed for children: Wednesday 10 November We’ll talk about Mars with “The Parachute of Perseverance”; Wednesday 17 We will test weights on the different planets of the solar system e Wednesday 24 November, with “Finding Ghosts”, we will discover the colors of light by building a spectrometer. Workshops “Digitarium” Saturday 13th Novemberand “The Cosmo Experience” by Saturday 20 NovemberTo experience astronauts for a day. Friday 19 November will be entirely devoted to our satellite with readings and explorations “Look at the Moon!”.

The Month of Science also includes guided visits to special places in the history of Modena and its scientific publication: the Geophysical Observatory, which was born in 1826 as an astronomical observatory, and has since been located in the eastern tower of Palazzo Ducale (November 27); F. Martino Planetarium, opened in 1990, in which the view of the planetarium can be manually touched (November 6 and 26); AstroTorre in Ferrari Garden, where a passion for astronomy meets the Astrofili GB Amici Society (November 14, 15, 20 and 21). The full program It is available on the website www.comune.modena.it/biblioteche.