ISSN 1993-8616
2009 - number 7
Enigmas of the universe
© NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Image of Saturn taken by the space probe Cassini, launched by NASA in 1997.
400 years ago Galileo took the dark stains on the surface of the moon to be seas. He was wrong. Today, we are sending missions to the moon in search of water. These technological advances have been extraordinary: in the past 20 years 350 planets have been discovered outside of our solar system and several months ago the first images of them reached us via satellite. Yet, the universe remains largely unknown.
From Alhazen Ibn Haitham’s theory about the dark spots on the moon (11th century) to the recent discovery of exoplanets in April 2009, this issue, published on the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy, traces these steps in our long history of observing the stars. Read the editorial
From closed world to infinite universe
A small sphere at the centre of a much larger sphere: this is how the earth and the universe were imagined in Greek antiquity. This image of a closed world was shattered by a gadget sold in shops. 400 years ago, Galileo observed the sky with a telescope he made himself. The world would never be the same. More
Over the Moon
The Apollo 11 Mission and Galileo’s observations, whose respective 40th and 400th anniversaries we are celebrating this year, confirmed discoveries with the naked eye almost a millennium ago by the Arab polymath Alhazen - a man ahead of his time who determined the future of astronomy. More
A story as old as the world
The movements of the Sun and the phases of the Moon have synchronized human activities, particularly rituals and agriculture, for thousands of years. At its inception, astronomy was primarily used to measure time. Calendars have played an essential role in people’s lives. We revisit the astronomy of ancient China, the Mayans and the medieval Islamic world with the astronomers Zhao Gang, Julieta Fierro and George Saliba. More
Towards a map of the universe
On May 14, 2009 the Planck satellite was launched into space aboard the Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou aeronautical base in French Guyana. This European Space Agency (ESA) mission will help us to improve our understanding of the universe. A 2006 Nobel Laureate in physics, Professor George Fitzgerald Smoot, explains more. More
Extraterrestrial life: surprises in store?
Does the discovery of extrasolar planets mean the discovery of extraterrestrial life? During a UNESCO conference marking the International Year of Astronomy, three world renowned scientists, Lord Martin John Rees (United Kingdom), Jonathan P. Gardner (United States) and Françoise Combes (France), tackled the question from different perspectives. More
Astronomy : the three tiers of research
We have no reason to think that the planets in our solar system represent every type of planet in existence, according to the Swiss astrophysicist Michel Mayor, who discovered the first extrasolar planet with Didier Queloz in 1995. Last April, his team at the Geneva Observatory discovered the smallest exoplanet known today. More
