Field Notes

摘要

Padua, Italy-During the January nights in 1610 when Galileo discovered Jupiter's four largest moons from a balcony in this city, he remarked how the planet with its circling satellites resembled the sun and its retinue of planets. In January 2010, as celebrants from 16 countries gathered here to consider "Galileo's Medicean Moons: Their Impact on 400 Years of Discovery," the controversial bodies were still sparking comparisons throughout the solar system and beyond to exoplanets scattered across the Milky Way.