«CWhat was there before the big bang? Those who have faith can think of God. Others, including me, remain a little … with the sorcio in the mouth». Very pop popularizer (also in the sense of popular) and very Roman, Martina Cardillo is among the guests of Outside – Festival of Science and Artscheduled from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 June in Centocelle, Rome. Will dialogue, without exclusion of jokes, with Paola Minaccioni in a meeting entitled A As astrophysics, to as an actress. Science and Art in comparison. Let’s start to interview it from here, from the share of poetry and art that can be read in the universe.
Martina Cardillo, astrophysics within everyone’s reach
The former classical high school student converted to astrophysics Martina Cardillo responds with informality low profile which is its distinctive trait. Telling, first of all, how His vocation was not at all obvious: «At high school I had two professors who made me discover as fascinating is hidden in numberswhich are the key to reality. A poetry that remains hidden to many students and students ».
Its mission is therefore revealing it: and do it in poor wordsliterally. Cardillo is therefore an Inf astrophysics with a ardent vocation for dissemination. To which it gives vent by participating in the projects of theNational Institute of Astrophysics but also with podcast (Martina terrible It’s her), theatrical performances and poems in dialect on Facebook (Rome Caput Astri – Astroverse in Romanesco). In the certainty that “even the very complex discoveries can be explained to everyone”.
Among the very complex themes there is what she deals with, since the degree, or the gamma rays. “It is the astrophysics of the high energy, the one that studies the most energetic electromagnetic radiation of all”.
Martina Cardillo next to the “room” of the first telescope of the Chernkov Telescope Array international project, which reveals the range radiation. It is located more than 2000m on the island of La Palma (Canarie)
From supernova to black holes, and beyond
Gamma rays is a field in which, as in general in science, “the most fascinating thing is also the most frustrating thing. That is, the fact that it is in constant movement. The more data we collect, the more we understand that we had not understood, At least not everything. And then we start again, observing things differently ».
Basically, Cardillo studies The explosion of the supernovathat is, “the end of the life of the greatest and most massive stars. To be clear, not the one that our sun will do, which is very small ». And the objects that will then give a second life to these stars, «and that is black holes, so fascinating … because obviously less than one thing you understand and the more fascinating us». And the stars of neutron.
Simeis 147 is a famous rest of Supernova visible in the constellation of the bull, on the border with the auriga. The supernova would have exploded about 40,000 years ago (Photo by: Alan Dyer/VwPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Gamma rays, what are they?
«In these crazy objects shocks, shock waves that can accelerate particles with very high energies occur. Well, These accelerated hyper particles also reach our land».
In short, the gamma rays concern us. “Fortunately, we are protected from the atmosphere and the magnetic field, so this does not thicken too much.” But, for example, it affects flight attendants and pilots, who receive more abundant doses of these radiation in the long run harmful.
But studying cosmic rays is useful, for example, also for The effects they have on our technologies. «When the sun is to its maximums of the sun cycle it does not only generate those wonderful boreal aurore which, in 2024, were also visible to low latitudes. It also emits jets of matter, full of charged particles. And electricity does not really be in accordance with satellite technology ».
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9ebacpkx68
Why study the universe, with all the problems we have on earth
To whom he has doubts about the sense of the study of the universe, with all the problems we have on earthCardillo offers many answers. «First of all, the earth is in space. So “House of our” is not this surface here, but it is the whole universe. We are on a planet that runs around the sun. And this sun runs around the galactic center of a galaxy which is one of the billions of billions of galaxies that exist. A universe that, for us, is more or less 13 billion and 8 million years of light: But it is only everything we have been able to see up to this moment, considering that electromagnetic radiation has a limited speed, that is 300,000 km per second ».
Who is afraid of meteorites
Studying the universe makes sense, therefore, first of all because what happens “there” has no small effects on earth. «Today we have for example the tools to monitor Asteroids in approach. And, as the Dart Asteroid Redirection Test) mission of the NASA, also those to divert a possible meteorite, before the impact, tried.
Spatial solutions for terrestrial lives
Not only «Looking at the top often you find solutions to live below». For example, the water recycling system used in the International Space Station, which allows you to recycle 93% of the water: “Obviously it is too expensive technology to make it usable everywhere but it is an extraordinary innovation”.
Still, The Hubble telescope. «When, in the 90s, he was launched in space, he sent blurred images. It was just 400 kilometers above our heads then It was thought to put him … the glasses. Corrective lenses that improved his work. But all the data he had collected in the first two years? They were read to a software created ad hoc. Well, today this software is used for mammographs».
NASA’s spinoffs
Every year, from its institution, lIn NASA it has an annual report on the main products designed or developed thanks to know-how acquired within one of his missionor using data or software made available by the space agency. And there is even an editorial project, called proper Spin offwhich every year shares over 2,000 stories of products and services influenced by NASA technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emqfcxzknei
Not only us in the universe: Spatial waste and Elon Musk
But they are not all stars that glitter. Our study of space has several Side effects: like space waste. According to the latest report of the European Space Agency, something like 1.2 million fragments of debris with a diameter greater than 1 cm, and about 50,000 objects that exceed 10 cm: substantially remains of abandoned satellites. Or the light pollution caused by the Spacex Starlink satellites, by Elon Musk, who impacts the observation of the night sky and potentially on scientific research. The point of view of an investigation to the works?
“I believe that things are reached by trying, and also making errors that then try to correct,” says Cardillo. It also applies to Elon Musk who, in recent days, has announced the operation of his satellites for the Iranian population. «He brought the Internet where he seemed impossible, he will work to reduce brightness. There is very skepticisimo towards the People like him, who have a lot of money and invest in space. But considering that NASA also made investment hallucinating cuts, If there were no individuals, we researchers would spend a lot of time with the hands tied».
Not only that: Martina Cardillo puts Musk and entrepreneurs of the space also a personal dream in Musk. «I spent a life to study the stars but not only an astronaut: in my little one I would like to participate tomorrow participate in a commercial flight and try, before dying, the incredible emotion of looking at the earth from above». Do we launch an appeal?
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