Discovering the places of science LIVE AT 4.00 PM

From space to the depths of the sea , from mountain peaks to mines : the places of physics are many and very different from each other. But why go to such extreme environments to study the secrets of the infinitely large and the infinitely small? To answer this question, from May 13 to June 3, the National Institute of Nuclear Physics is offering the online series “Beyond the Borders. From the depths of space to the abyss, a journey through places of discovery”, open to all interested people, with a special focus on teachers and high school students. The goal is to accompany the public on a fascinating journey through some of the most unusual places of scientific research, describing the experiments that take place there and explaining why those places, often extreme or difficult to access, are essential to advance our understanding of the universe. The public will be able to actively participate in the live broadcasts, interacting with guests via chat and responding to surveys proposed in real time. The first meeting is dedicated to Space and features as guests Matteo Duranti, researcher at Infn Perugia, and Melissa Pesce-Rollins, researcher at Infn Pisa. Together they will talk about two important space experiments, Ams-02 and IXPE, and will talk about the opportunities and challenges of scientific exploration beyond the Earth's atmosphere.

On May 20, attention will shift to the Peaks , in a meeting with Luisa Bonolis, researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, and Alessandro Paiella, researcher at Sapienza University of Rome and the INFN, who will tell the story of numerous experiments conducted at high altitude or on board stratospheric balloons.

We will talk about the Sea on May 27th , with Piera Sapienza, an INFN researcher, and Luigi Fusco, a professor at the University of Salerno and an INFN researcher, who work in the KM3NeT scientific collaboration that manages the impressive neutrino telescope installed in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea.

Finally, on June 3 , the meeting dedicated to the Caves will feature INFN researchers Federico Ferraro and Andrea Contu, who will explain why we should go underground to study the mysteries of the universe, going through the experimental activities of the Gran Sasso National Laboratories, the large accelerator at CERN (LHC) and the Einstein Telescope, the future European experiment dedicated to the detection of gravitational waves.

The caves

Beneath hundreds of meters of rock lie extraordinary places, where ambitious physics experiments investigate some of the deepest mysteries of the cosmos. In the company of INFN researchers Federico Ferraro and Andrea Contu, we will explore the world of underground research, starting from the Gran Sasso National Laboratories, the largest underground research center in Europe dedicated to astroparticle physics, an extremely silent environment, from which it is possible to investigate the great mysteries of the universe, such as dark matter. The journey will continue to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the most powerful particle accelerator in the world, and will look to the future with the Einstein Telescope, the next great European observatory for the detection of gravitational waves, which promises to revolutionize the way we observe the universe.

Sea

The deep sea is still a largely unexplored environment, but also a precious ally of physics: it offers ideal conditions to observe some of the most mysterious cosmic messengers in the universe. In the company of Piera Sapienza (INFN) and Luigi Fusco (University of Salerno and INFN), we will discover a unique observatory in the world on the Mediterranean Sea floor. At the center of the meeting will be KM3NeT-ARCA, a huge experiment installed off the coast of Sicily, which allows us to study neutrinos, elusive particles from space, and to investigate the universe in new and surprising ways.

Description:

The peaks

From mountains to stratospheric balloons, physics has often sought its way at high altitude. With Luisa Bonolis (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin) and Alessandro Paiella (Sapienza University of Rome and Infn), we will discover how high-altitude environments have always played a fundamental role in scientific research. We will talk about historical and modern experiments conducted in the mountains, with a focus on the Qubic experiment, an innovative telescope installed in the Argentine Andes to study the primordial universe through cosmic microwave background radiation. We will also delve into the role of experiments on stratospheric balloons, real laboratories at high altitude that allow unique astrophysical observations.

The space

A journey beyond the Earth's atmosphere to discover how and why we study the secrets of the universe from Space. With Matteo Duranti (Infn Perugia) and Melissa Pesce-Rollins (Infn Pisa) we will explore two large international experiments: Ams-02, on board the International Space Station, and the Ixpe space telescope. With them we will also discover the opportunities and challenges related to the construction and management of space experiments.