How does the Universe work?
What physical laws do we know that govern its functioning?
Does the Universe really expand and what does the expansion of the Universe mean?
By moving his hands in and out of one of the interactive exhibits on display, the visitor will be able to travel through time on a cosmic scale: moving his hands closer together will ‘compress’ the Universe until the hands of the cosmic clock reach the Big Bang. Turning them away will be enough to start its expansion.
What do we know about the most fascinating objects in the Universe, the black holes? Here too, it will be possible to find out through an interactive installation and virtually experience the impossible of approaching even a black hole. But gravity also acts on a smaller scale on the various bodies that populate the Universe: it will be possible to experience its effects by simulating a walk on Mars or the Moon.
But let us start from the beginning, from our home: Earth. Ours is a beautiful, complex but also very delicate and fragile planet. The ecosystems, landscapes and scenarios that present themselves to our eyes from the Pole to the Equator are very diverse and all equally fascinating. Thanks to Earth observation satellites, we can monitor and study the health of the planet and record changes, especially climate changes, to try to combat them. We will also discover what the Earth looks like as seen from space, immersing ourselves in the fascinating journey of beams of electromagnetic waves that interact with the Earth’s surface and tell of volcanic areas and areas affected by active tectonic structures.
Space exploration, observations of black holes and distant galaxies, the search for life in space, and all the ongoing frontier research are just the latest stage in a journey that began thousands of years ago, when people in different parts of the world began to observe, measure, and understand the movements of celestial bodies. A tribute to the James Webb Space Telescope will enable us to face future challenges by taking us into a new era of observational astronomy that could revolutionise our knowledge of the Universe. Going into space will be easier, faster and, above all, cheaper thanks to the new generation of launchers using lighter composite structures and components that can be reused for multiple missions.
We are probably also close to an epochal goal for the human species: living on two different planets and becoming a multi-planetary species. The search for life in space has also long engaged the international research community. Starting with the extraordinary achievements of Babylonian astronomers more than three thousand years ago, the exhibition will also open a window on the fascinating kaleidoscope of the ‘universes’ of cultures at once distant and close, to which invisible and often unsuspected threads bind us.
The exhibition Space (to the Future) will thus take the public on a journey through past, present and future, with the contribution of science fiction, through that gaze that since antiquity human beings have turned towards the heavens with the desire to discover the secrets of the Universe in which they are immersed.
Organised by the Idis-Città della Scienza Foundation
In collaboration with:
University of Rome “La Sapienza” | University of Naples “Federico II” | University of Naples “L’Orientale” | DST – University of Sannio | University of Pavia | National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development_ENEA | National Research Centre_CNR | Institute for the Electromagnetic Survey of the Environment_IREA – National Research Council | European Space Agency_ESA | Italian Aerospace Research Centre_CIRA | National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology_Osservatorio Vesuviano_INGV | National Institute of Astrophysics_INAF | National Institute of Nuclear Physics_INFN | Istituto Superiore di Sanità | European Gravitational Observatory_EGO | Kayser Italia | Telespazio | Thales Alenia Space | Italian Space Agency_ASI | Infini. to – Planetarium of Turin