At the Discovery of the Milky Way

6-13 September 2012. The Italian Cultural Institute presents this photographic exhibition, entitled The Milky Way through Science, History and Art.

Since many centuries the arc of the Milky Way, a colossal structure made of hundreds of billions of stars, has filled watchers with great wonder and enchantment. In ancient times people have built pre-scientific myths and legends around the mysterious relationship between human life and the ineffable celestial nebula. The silvery lights of the Milky Way have inspired artists, poets and painters.

Throughout this exhibition visitors will discover unexpectedly that in present times scientific knowledge still proves that life on the Earth has a deep and unforeseen correlation with the history and the structure of the Milky Way. On 6 September at 19.00 this exhibition will be inaugurated by its curator Dr. Paola Platania, researcher at the Institute of the Physics of Plasma of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and holder of a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Milan.