Questions of Modern Cosmology Galileo's Legacy
Are we living in the "golden age" of cosmology? Are we close to understanding the nature of the unknown ingredients of the currently most accepted cosmological model and the physics of the early Universe? Or are we instead approaching a paradigm shift? Wh
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Questions of Modern Cosmology Galileo’s Legacy
123
Questions of Modern Cosmology
Mauro D’Onofrio
•
Carlo Burigana
Editors
Questions of Modern Cosmology Galileo’s Legacy
123
Editors Mauro D’Onofrio Universit`a di Padova Dip. to. di Astronomia Vicolo Osservatorio, 3 35122 Padova Italy [email protected]
Carlo Burigana INAF Bologna Ist. di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (IASF) Via Gobetti, 101 40129 Bologna Italy [email protected]
ISBN 978-3-642-00791-0 e-ISBN 978-3-642-00792-7 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-00792-7 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009928103 c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: WMXDesign GmbH Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
In memory of the men and women who spent their lives for a science free from prejudices, conditioning, and interferences.
Foreword
This book represents a modern tribute to Galileo. The way in which the authors, Mauro D’Onofrio and Carlo Burigana, illustrate the present understanding of the Universe through interviews in which physicists, astrophysicists, and cosmologists highlight their pros and cons on the current models takes our mind immediately to Galileo’s opera “Dialogue over the two world maxima systems”. In the “Dialogue”, three characters are philosophizing on the world “Tolemaic-Aristotelic” system against the innovative “Copernican” system, Salviati, and Simplicio – both scientists – and the noble Venetian Sagredo. The latter represents the moderate reader, while Salviati is the spokesman of the Galileian Copernican ideas and Simplicio is the rigid defender of the traditional and dogmatic “scholastic” doctrine. It is not the case that Simplicio means “simple” as well as “silly”. But Simplicio is not at all silly, while is trivial the incapacity of the “scholastic” model to open itself to novelties. “Questo modo di filosofare tende alla sovversione di tutta la filosofia naturale, ed al disordinare e mettere in conquasso il cielo e la Terra e tutto l’universo” (This way of philosophizing subverts the whole of natural philosophy and puts out of order the sky, the earth, and the e
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