News arriving from Space has multiplied in recent times, in no small part thanks to the private companies who have started taking wealthy tourists into orbit: Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, for example.
Space was once an unknown, inaccessible world for most people, or at least it was for several decades. Then, thanks to the internet and some particularly skilful popularisers, we learnt that many of the innovations capable of improving our everyday lives on Earth come directly from Space, and from the research work related to Space missions.
The focus of future Space missions will be the exploration of the solar system’s planets, beginning with Mars. Life on Earth seems destined to end sooner than expected, and if our instinct is to preserve the human species, perhaps we are laying the foundations for what will be a future planetary migration.
With this goal in mind, the Artemis mission was organised, which in 2025 will send man - and for the first time, a woman - back to the Moon. This time, for increasingly longer periods, during which the astronauts will stay in bases built under the lunar soil.
The Moon will be a testing ground for research, allowing humans to build in uncharted conditions, facing a series of problems that we have not yet had the chance to solve.
“We are going to Space not only out of the desire for discovery, for pure knowledge and for the need for answers that characterises the human race, but also to find a way of survival for when the Earth is no longer able to accommodate us.”
“Technological development is the only thing that will be able to save us: exploring Space means facing a series of great difficulties, and means finding new technological solutions, which will inevitably also benefit life on Earth,” says Orsola De Marco, professor of astronomy and physics at Macquarie University.
Born in Verona, to a father who was a lawyer and a mother who was a fashion designer, De Marco has always nurtured her keen interest in physics. She remembers that as a child, when travelling on the train, she would jump to see whether, as the train moved forward, she was moving backwards.
“I was the typical lonely, introverted child who loved to study,” she recalls, “characteristics that I later found in most of my colleagues.”
After the three years at the scientific high school in Bologna, De Marco was awarded a scholarship to study at the United World College in Duino, in the province of Trieste, where she attended her last two years of high school with students from 60 other countries.
“It was a life-changing experience, where I matured a lot and found people similar to me,” says De Marco.
As soon as she graduated, she returned to Bologna to enrol in an astrophysics degree, but immediately realised that the Italian university’s approach was not for her, and so she opted for England, after a brief stint in Scotland as a sailing teacher.
The academic life she had always imagined was waiting for her: a doctorate after graduation, a post-doc in Zurich and then back to London.
Speaking with Orsola De Marco, one is immediately struck by the fact that, not only is she brilliant and determined, but also engaging and energetic. She’s able to go out and get what she wants in life.
She proved this when, wanting to leave London to move to New York, she managed to convince her future boss to give her an initial three-month project at the American Museum of Natural History, despite being turned down at first.
She moved to the Big Apple with Nick, her university friend whom she married at the age of 23, and with whom she has two children, Clare and Elliott. After 10 years of American life, however, she felt the need for a change.
“I am very grateful to my husband who has always supported me and gave up a brilliant career when we decided to leave New York for Sydney,” De Marco stresses.
Down under she began her journey as an associate professor, soon becoming a professor in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Macquarie University, a choice she is very happy with, as she explains:
"I asked myself what value I could bring to others, and the answer to that is ‘teaching’; that is my value. My students often tell me that they understand my explanations well, and that I encourage them. That is my mission.”
De Marco also devotes a lot of time to her research program, which focuses on the study of stars and stellar evolution.
“I have always been especially interested in binary stars, which are stars that are so close that during their lifetime they exchange mass, a bit like what happens in a marriage,” she jokes.
“Sometimes this mass exchange can become more violent, and two stars become one, or there can be a mass spill, from which nebulae are born.”
The butterfly-shaped planetary nebula NGC 2899, photographed by the Eso (European southern observatory) in Chile.
According to De Marco, it is crucial to continue inspiring young people to find interest in the study of science:
“On my part, I do a lot of outreach with young people. At the university on September 17, we will have our annual ‘Astronomy Open Night’, which hosts around 2,000 people every year. It's nice to see how enthusiastic and excited everyone always is; for those who come, it's a way to forget about day-to-day difficulties, the problems that plague the world - and we all need that.”
De Marco emphasises how there is an urgent need for new generations to continue studying science to find the answers to our planet’s problems.
“Young people are not inspired, because teachers are not inspired. Astronomy could be what brings young people closer to the study of science. If you teach people a methodology for solving problems by offering them tools and technical knowledge, you will put them in a position to find answers to even the most diverse situations.”
And to those who are uncertain whether to follow a fascinating path of study in astrophysics, thinking that career options might be limited, De Marco replies:
“If you follow your passion, you will always fall on your feet.”
