Stefano Sandrelli

Cosmos as a permanent Utopia realm

Abstract

When Giangiacomo Gandolfi of the Rome Planetarium and I co-edited a collection of short stories about astronomy (Piccolo atlante celeste: racconti di astronomia, Einaudi 2009), we were struck by a specific element in the cosmos, and decided to mention it in our introduction:

‘Looking at the sky is definitely dangerous: even if you don’t fall down, you might still get the feeling that another world is possible. And then this world will not be enough anymore’.

Today such an astronomical Utopia could even be more relevant and dangerous than a few decades ago. In this period hundreds of planets orbiting around stars different from the Sun. Were discovered. We now know of over 1200 of them, and new ones are found every day. We can say for sure that planetary systems are quite common in the cosmos, and form throughout the universe. Therefore it has become increasingly challenging to believe we are the only intelligent species to have evolved after the Big Bang.

And, going on this direction, if there are other worlds and other forms of intelligent life, we could wonder which social structures they might adopt. Is there any connection between the geophysical characteristic of an inhabited planet and the social structure, as Giovanni Schiaparelli suggested at the end of nineteenth century?

Since the universe is so vast and populated by planets, the realm of Utopias turns into the realm of odds. Astronomy today fosters a permanent revolution.

Biography

Stefano Sandrelli is the Head of public outreach and Education office of INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera. He has been collaborating with the European Space Agency since 1999. At the moment, he is engaged with Futura, the Italian Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti mission to the ISS.

He has published books for children with Feltrinelli (Feltrinellikids), winning an Italian Andersen Prize for the best series. Under the same sky, written with Roberto Piumini and published with Carthusia, was in the final of the same prize.

He published for Einaudi publisher the literature and astronomy anthology Piccolo Atlante Celeste, and was co-author together with Tullio Regge of his biography. He was editor of several artistic show in collaboration with the Fine Arts Academy of Brera, Milano (The universe inside, 2009; The invisible universe 2012).