{"id":19220,"date":"2026-03-03T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T07:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/uncategorized\/astronomia-da-fantascienza-1"},"modified":"2026-06-18T19:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:18:07","slug":"astronomia-da-fantascienza-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/en\/astronomia-da-fantascienza\/astronomia-da-fantascienza-1","title":{"rendered":"Astronomia da fantascienza \ud83d\udc49 -1"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span style=\"color: #ffcc00\">*Astronomia da fantascienza, a cura di Camilla Pianta*<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #ffcc00\"><b><i>A Fire Upon The Deep<\/i>, quando l&#8217;ordine cosmico \u00e8 dinamico<\/b><\/span><b><span style=\"color: #ffcc00\">\u00a0\ud83c\udf0c<\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><strong><em><span style=\"color: #ffcc00\">What if universal constants were actually variables<\/span><\/em><\/strong><em><span style=\"color: #ffcc00\"><b>?<\/b><\/span><\/em><b><\/b><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0\"><strong>COUNTDO<span style=\"color: #c0c0c0\">WN <\/span><\/strong><strong>TO APRIL 2026, THE CENTENARY OF SCIENCE FICTION<\/strong><strong>: -1<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/0\/03\/Flag_of_Italy.svg\/960px-Flag_of_Italy.svg.png\" alt=\"File:Flag of Italy.svg\" width=\"20\" height=\"13\" \/>\u00a0 <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/astronomia-da-fantascienza\/centenario-della-fantascienza\">Clicca qui<\/a> per la versione italiana di questo articolo<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Famous for coining the term \u201ctechnological singularity\u201d and for anticipating current scientific debates on artificial intelligence, <span style=\"color: #99ccff\"><strong>Vernor Vinge<\/strong><\/span> (1944-2024) was an American writer with an academic background in mathematics and computer science. In the novel <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Fire Upon The Deep<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, first released in 1992 by the American publisher Tor Books and then the following year in Italy by the publisher Editrice Nord, in a translation by <strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff\">Gianluigi Zuddas<\/span> <\/strong>(1943), the galaxy is a heterogeneous, vertically stratified environment. It is, in fact, divided into Zones with spatially varying physical properties, whose complexity increases with height above the galactic plane. From the Unthinking Depths, through the Slow Zone, and all the way to the Beyond and the Transcend, the constraints on communication and technology become ever less restrictive, ultimately allowing information to propagate at superluminal speeds within the Known Net. The planet Central constitutes a strategic node inside the Net: positioned to maximise data transmission and accelerate interstellar travel, it grants access to regions that would otherwise remain unreachable. In 1993, the work won the Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is an inconstant universe, the one imagined by Vinge, where the behaviour of physical laws shifts from Zone to Zone. How, then, does this inconstancy unfold in our own universe?<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18757\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18757\" style=\"width: 1125px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-a-fire-upon-the-deep-vernor-vinge-universo-incostante.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-18757\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-a-fire-upon-the-deep-vernor-vinge-universo-incostante.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1125\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-a-fire-upon-the-deep-vernor-vinge-universo-incostante.png 1500w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-a-fire-upon-the-deep-vernor-vinge-universo-incostante-300x160.png 300w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-a-fire-upon-the-deep-vernor-vinge-universo-incostante-1024x546.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-a-fire-upon-the-deep-vernor-vinge-universo-incostante-768x410.png 768w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-a-fire-upon-the-deep-vernor-vinge-universo-incostante-24x13.png 24w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-a-fire-upon-the-deep-vernor-vinge-universo-incostante-36x19.png 36w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-a-fire-upon-the-deep-vernor-vinge-universo-incostante-48x26.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1125px) 100vw, 1125px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18757\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">On the left, the cover of the original edition of <i data-path-to-node=\"1\" data-index-in-node=\"51\">A Fire Upon the Deep<\/i> (Tor Books, 1992). Source: <a class=\"ng-star-inserted\" href=\"https:\/\/www.isfdb.org\/cgi-bin\/pl.cgi?568\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-hveid=\"0\" data-ved=\"0CAAQ_4QMahgKEwiMpP_shpGVAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQkQI\">https:\/\/www.isfdb.org\/cgi-bin\/pl.cgi?568<\/a> In the center, a portrait of the author Vernor Vinge in 2006 at the 16th annual Computer, Freedom, Privacy conference in Washington DC, United States. Source: <a class=\"ng-star-inserted\" href=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/A1D4hXHjaeL.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-hveid=\"0\" data-ved=\"0CAAQ_4QMahgKEwiMpP_shpGVAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQkgI\">https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/A1D4hXHjaeL.jpg<\/a> On the right, the cover of the first Italian edition (<i data-path-to-node=\"1\" data-index-in-node=\"405\">Universo incostante<\/i>, Editrice Nord, 1993, most recent reprint 2007). Source: <a class=\"ng-star-inserted\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=https%3A%2F%2Fpicclick.it%2FVernor-Vinge-Universo-Incostante-Cosmo-Oro-123737850466.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-hveid=\"0\" data-ved=\"0CAAQ_4QMahgKEwiMpP_shpGVAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQkwI\">https:\/\/picclick.it\/Vernor-Vinge-Universo-Incostante-Cosmo-Oro-123737850466.html<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is said that the Austrian physicist <strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff\">Wolfgang Pauli<\/span><\/strong> (1900-1958) claimed that, once dead, his first question to the Devil would have been what its meaning was, and that the US physicist <strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff\">Richard Feynman<\/span><\/strong> (1918-1988) described it as \u201ca magic number that comes to us with no understanding by man\u201d. We are talking about the fine-structure constant, a dimensionless quantity with value of <span style=\"color: #99ccff\"><strong><em>\u03b1<\/em> \u2248 1\/137.036<\/strong><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, regardless of the system of measurement. According to recent studies, a variation of just a few percent in this number would be sufficient to preclude the existence of life in its known forms. It is for this reason that some have even argued that the fine-structure constant has been deliberately \u201ctuned\u201d to be compatible with the emergence of life. Nevertheless, it cannot be predicted directly from theory, but must be measured experimentally. Indeed, it appears among the 19 free parameters of the Standard Model of particle physics (we have written about that in another episode of this series) and belongs to the class of coupling constants, which determine the strength of the electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and strong nuclear interactions. Specifically, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is the coupling constant associated with the electromagnetic force, since it gives the strength of the interaction between two charged particles \u2014 such as proton\u2013electron interactions in atoms and proton\u2013proton interactions in atomic nuclei, where it manifests as Coulomb repulsion between positive charges (that is, charges of the same sign).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">T<\/span>he <em>\u03b1<\/em> constant was first introduced in 1916 by the German phyisicist <strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff\">Arnold Sommerfeld<\/span><\/strong> (1868-1951), who extended the atomic model of the Danish physicist <strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff\">Niels Bohr<\/span><\/strong> (1885-1962) by incorporating relat<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ivistic corrections to electronic orbits. In Bohr\u2019s model, negatively charged electrons revolved around a positively charged nucleus composed of protons and neutrons, occupying fixed (i.e., quantised) energy levels called orbitals. Electrons could jump from one orbital to another by absorbing a given quantity of energy in the form of photons (to move up) or by emitting it (to move down). Bohr\u2019s model, however, eventually revealed itself to be overly simplistic, for it failed to consider electron spin, which led to an additional splitting of the orbitals into two distinct levels, marked by a slight energy separation. It was Sommerfeld himself who identified the presence of these sub-orbitals, constituting the fine structure of the atom: hence the name of the constant, which had to mathematically reproduce it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The measurement of <em>\u03b1<\/em><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is achieved through atomic spectroscopy and interferometry experiments, enabling observation of the electron\u2019s behaviour when subjected to an external magnetic field (as occurs in cyclotrons). This response, referred to as the magnetic moment, depends on the particle\u2019s spin and electric charge: the small deviations between the empirical value and the theoretical value derived from the British physicist <strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff\">Paul Dirac<\/span><\/strong>\u2019s (1902-1984) relativistic equation for the electron are termed anomalies of the magnetic moment and serve to accurately calculate <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in quantum electrodynamics. From a physical perspective, the low magnitude of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> implies that the electromagnetic force is rather weak, causing electrons to orbit the nucleus at relatively large distances and making them less tightly bound. The electrons\u2019 greater availability to exchange with other atoms thus facilitates the chemical reactions essential for life to develop. Should <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> be significantly increased or decreased, the necessary conditions for these chemical reactions would not be established, and life would not be possible. In other words, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> falls precisely within the Goldilocks zone, the critical window beyond which the universe could not sustain the stable configurations required for biological complexity.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18763\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18763\" style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-milky-way.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18763\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-milky-way.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"800\" data-wp-editing=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-milky-way.png 2000w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-milky-way-300x120.png 300w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-milky-way-1024x410.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-milky-way-768x307.png 768w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-milky-way-1536x614.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-milky-way-24x10.png 24w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-milky-way-36x14.png 36w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/collage-milky-way-48x19.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18763\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">On the left, the map of the Milky Way from the first edition of <i data-path-to-node=\"1\" data-index-in-node=\"65\">A Fire Upon The Deep<\/i>, showing the different galactic zones, created by artist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.isfdb.org\/cgi-bin\/ea.cgi?27176\">Elissa Martin, a pseudonym of Ellisa Mitchell<\/a>. Source: <a class=\"ng-star-inserted\" href=\"https:\/\/3e.org\/vvannot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-hveid=\"0\" data-ved=\"0CAAQ_4QMahgKEwiMpP_shpGVAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQrQI\">https:\/\/3e.org\/vvannot\/<\/a> On the right, an infographic on the structure and components of the Milky Way, produced by NASA in 2025. Credit: NASA&#8217;s Goddard Space Flight Center. Source: <a class=\"ng-star-inserted\" href=\"https:\/\/svs.gsfc.nasa.gov\/14935\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-hveid=\"0\" data-ved=\"0CAAQ_4QMahgKEwiMpP_shpGVAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQrgI\">https:\/\/svs.gsfc.nasa.gov\/14935<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Evidence of the connection between <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the chemistry of life is also found in astrophysics, owing to the work of the British astronomer <strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff\">Fred Hoyle<\/span><\/strong> (1915-2001) on the production of heavy elements \u2014 such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen \u2014 in stellar interiors. In 1957, he discovered that the cosmic abundance of carbon could be accounted for only if the carbon-12 nucleus possessed an excited state at the energy of 7.654 MeV (the Hoyle state). This was a resonant state, its energy closely coinciding with that necessary for three helium nuclei to merge in the triple-alpha reaction by which carbon-12 is formed. It therefore seemed, essentially, to be \u201cfinely positioned\u201d to enhance the likelihood of the triple-alpha reaction taking place. Starting from the early 2000s, nuclear structure and stellar evolution models have been employed to investigate the sensitivity of the triple-alpha reaction to the position of the Hoyle state in carbon-12. The aim was to estimate the influence of the strong nuclear and electromagnetic forces on the energy threshold at which the reaction could be considered efficient. In particular, research by the Austrian physicist <strong><span style=\"color: #99ccff\">Heinz Oberhummer<\/span><\/strong> (1941-2015) and his collaborators showed that a variation of about 0.5\u20134% in the value of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> would suffice to shift the resonance, thereby drastically modifying carbon nucleosynthesis. The alteration of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> would, in fact, translate into a different Coulomb repulsion between the protons of carbon-12 nuclei, disrupting the balance with the strong nuclear force \u2014 responsible for holding protons and neutrons together in atomic nuclei. The absence of equilibrium in the two forces would consequently prevent the energy of the reacting helium nuclei from matching that of the carbon nuclei produced<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At first, the fine-structure constant thusly gave the impression of being a universal and immutable quantity. Awareness that it is actually related to temperature grew alongside quantum electrodynamics: it takes the value <em>\u03b1<\/em> \u2248 1\/137.036<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at <em>T<\/em> \u2248 2 K<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the temperature of the present universe, but rises to <em>\u03b1 <\/em>\u2273 1\/127 at <em>T<\/em> \u2248 10<sup>15<\/sup> K<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the temperature of the primordial universe. Hence, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was heightened near the Big Bang, when the universe was extremely hot, implying that it can be regarded as constant solely within the low-temperature regime. The energy-scale dependence of coupling constants \u2014 expressed in terms of temperature as a measure of average energy in particle physics \u2014 is known as the running of the constants and follows from the implementation of the renormalisation technique in quantum electrodynamics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a mathematical procedure to eliminate divergences in the theory\u2019s equations, which rewrites fundamental parameters (such as the electron\u2019s charge and mass) in finite form by replacing calculated values with those obtained from experiment. In this way, one can extract consistent numerical predictions, testable against observations, as a function of the energy scale characterising the physical system under study. Notably, divergent contributions have their origin in quantum vacuum fluctuations, a phenomenon whereby empty space is assumed to be populated by virtual particle\u2013antiparticle pairs (that is, not directly observable) that continuously materialise and annihilate. Although invisible and very short-lived, they perturb the electric field of real particles, reducing its intensity as detected at a distance.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18787\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18787\" style=\"width: 923px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fig_0.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18787\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fig_0.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"923\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fig_0.jpg 923w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fig_0-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fig_0-768x428.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fig_0-24x13.jpg 24w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fig_0-36x20.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fig_0-48x27.jpg 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 923px) 100vw, 923px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18787\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The most precise experimental measurement of the value of the fine-structure constant was achieved by a French research team and published on December 3, 2020, in the prestigious journal <i data-path-to-node=\"1\" data-index-in-node=\"188\">Nature<\/i>: \u03b1 = 1\/137.035999206 with an uncertainty of 0.000000011. The background image represents the Feynman diagrams used for the theoretical calculations, while the colored image in the foreground outlines the experimental methodology used, namely atom interferometry. Credit: \u00a9 Pierre Clad\u00e9, Sa\u00efda Guellati-Kh\u00e9lifa, and Tatsumi Aoyama. Source: <a class=\"ng-star-inserted\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnrs.fr\/en\/press\/french-team-has-improved-measurement-fundamental-physical-constant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-hveid=\"0\" data-ved=\"0CAAQ_4QMahgKEwiMpP_shpGVAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQxgI\">https:\/\/www.cnrs.fr\/en\/press\/french-team-has-improved-measurement-fundamental-physical-constant<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When, for instance, a real electron (which carries negative charge) is immersed in the vacuum, the virtual particles (suppose electron\u2013positron pairs) respond to its field and redistribute as dictated by the sign of their charge: oppositely charged ones (the virtual positrons) are attracted and migrate closer, while like-charged ones (the virtual electrons) are repelled and move further away. This vacuum polarisation has the effect of surrounding the real particle with a cloud of virtual particles, which partially screens its charge and weakens its electric field. At low energies (or temperatures), the screening is maximal, so that the effective charge \u2014 actually measured \u2014 descends below the \u201cbare\u201d charge and the electromagnetic interaction is attenuated. Now, the temperature <em>T<\/em> \u2248 2 K<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> corresponds to energies of the order of 10<sup>-4<\/sup> eV<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which are too low for electromagnetic interactions to penetrate into the innermost region of the cloud shielding real particles. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ergo<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, in the case of the present universe, to enter the computation of <em>\u03b1<\/em><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is the screened charge instead of the actual one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yet, <em>\u03b1<\/em><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is by no means unique as an \u201cinconstant constant\u201d, for every constant governing the fundamental interactions (<em>\u03b1<\/em><i><sub>s<\/sub><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the strong, <em>\u03b1<\/em><i><sub>w<\/sub><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0for the weak, and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">G<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the gravitational force) is indeed sensitive to the energy scale. This prompts the question: what does the word \u201cconstant\u201d truly signify in physics?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Historically, a constant denoted an absolute number that underpins the pursuit of the universality of physical laws, presumed to hold at every point in space and at every instant in time. By contrast, modern physics reveals a dynamic cosmos, where the notion of constancy bends and reshapes to mirror its evolving state. Like in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Fire Upon The Deep<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, constancy frequently stands as a synonym for local and contingent stability. The precariousness inherent in the physical meaning of constancy need not be alarming, though: it simply suggests that reality is not rigidly deterministic, and that the universe we inhabit is merely one possible configuration among many. Would it be so wrong to envision alternative scenarios, even with a touch of science fiction? The answer is for you, the reader, to decide<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Nus, 3 March 2026 &#8211; English version published on 18 June 2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;color: #ffcc00\"><b>Astroglossary<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>temperature of the universe <i>T<\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the fossil electromagnetic radiation field that uniformly permeates the universe and represents the light emitted at\u00a0 the recombination epoch (that is, when matter and radiation decoupled, approximately 380,000 years after the Big Bang). It is composed of photons that have propagated freely through space ever since, their wavelengths being gradually stretched into the microwave range by cosmic expansion. This phenomenon, known as cosmological redshift, reduces the photons\u2019 energy (inversely proportional to their wavelength) and lowers the CMB temperature.<br \/>\n<strong>e<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>lectron spin<\/strong>: an intrinsic property of the electron, indicating its orientation relative to an external magnetic field. It is a quantised quantity that can take only two distinct values, \u201cup\u201d and \u201cdown.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>polarisation<\/strong>: the redistribution of electric charges in response to an external electric field, resulting in regions of positive and negative charge.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>particle\u2013antiparticle pairs<\/strong>: a temporary association of a particle and its corresponding antiparticle, possessing identical mass but opposite electric charge.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>fundamental interactions<\/strong>: the four basic forces that govern all physical phenomena in the universe, determining how elementary particles interact. These are the gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear forces.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Standard Model of elementary particles<\/strong>: the physical theory, developed between the late 1960s and 1970s, that describes the constituents of matter and the fundamental interactions, excluding gravity.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Quantum electrodynamics (QED)<\/strong>: the theory of the interaction between charged particles and the electromagnetic field, combining the principles of quantum mechanics and special relativity. It accounts for the emission and absorption of photons, which mediate the electromagnetic interaction, and for the effects of quantum vacuum fluctuations, which give rise to the formation of virtual particle\u2013antiparticle pairs.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>stellar nucleosynthesis<\/strong>: the process through which chemical elements heavier than hydrogen are produced within stars by nuclear fusion reactions. During successive fusion cycles, the synthesised elements are progressively mixed and transported towards the outer stellar layers. There they are eventually expelled into the surrounding interstellar medium via stellar winds or supernova explosions, supplying new material for the formation of stars, planets, and ultimately life.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>fine-tuning<\/strong>: the condition in which the fundamental parameters of a theory or of the universe must take extremely precise values for the observed physical phenomena to occur.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;color: #ffcc00\"><b>References<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.isfdb.org\/cgi-bin\/pl.cgi?568\">Internet Speculative Fiction Database: Vernor Vinge, <em>A Fire Upon The Deep<\/em>, every edition<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fantascienza.com\/9505\/universo-incostante\">Giovanni De Matteo, &#8220;Universo incostante&#8221;,\u00a0<em>Fantascienza.com<\/em><\/a>, 3 July 2007, in Italian<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/zenodo.org\/records\/2493673\">Arnold Sommerfeld, &#8220;Zur Quantentheorie der Spektrallinien&#8221;, <em>Annalen der Physik<\/em>, vol. 356, issue 17, pp.1-94<\/a>, 1\u00b0 January 1916, in German<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/rspa\/article\/117\/778\/610\/2242\/The-quantum-theory-of-the-electron\">Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, &#8220;The quantum theory of the electron&#8221;, <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences<\/em>, vol. 117, issue 778, pp. 610\u2013624<\/a>, 1\u00b0 February 1928<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.aps.org\/rmp\/abstract\/10.1103\/RevModPhys.29.547\">E. Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, William A. Fowler, W. A., Fred Hoyle, &#8220;Synthesis of the elements in stars&#8221;,<em> Reviews of Modern Physics<\/em>, vol. 29, issue 4, pp. 547\u2013650<\/a>, 1\u00b0 October 1957<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldscientific.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1142\/9789812793324_0020\">Heinz Oberhummer, Attila Cs\u00f3t\u00f3, Helmut Schlattl &#8220;Fine-tuning carbon-based life in the universe by the triple-alpha process in red giants&#8221;, in V. Burdyuzha, G. Khozin (Eds.), &#8220;<em>The Future of the Universe and the Future of our Civilization&#8221; Conference (July 2-6, 1999, Budapest, Hungary)<\/em>, pp. 197-205, World Scientific Publishing<\/a>, 2000 &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/astro-ph\/9908247\">arxiv version without paywall<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"LC20lb MBeuO DKV0Md\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/startswithabang\/2019\/05\/25\/ask-ethan-what-is-the-fine-structure-constant-and-why-does-it-matter\/\">Ethan Siegel, &#8220;Ask Ethan: What Is The Fine Structure Constant And Why Does It Matter?&#8221;, <em>Forbes<\/em><\/a>, 25 May 2019<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.media.inaf.it\/2020\/04\/29\/universo-dipolare\/\">Maura Sandri, &#8220;E se l\u2019universo avesse un nord e un sud?&#8221;, <em>Media INAF<\/em><\/a>, 29 April 2020, in Italian<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/physicists-measure-the-magic-fine-structure-constant-20201202\/\">Natalie Wolchover<em>, &#8220;<\/em>Physicists Nail Down the \u2018Magic Number\u2019 That Shapes the Universe&#8221;, <em>Quanta Magazine<\/em><\/a>, 2 December 2020<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/reactormag.com\/vernor-vinge-1944-2024\/\">Molly Templeton, &#8220;Vernor Vinge, 1944\u20142024&#8221;,\u00a0<em>Reactor<\/em><\/a>, 22 March 2024<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2024\/mar\/29\/vernor-vinge-obituary\">Steve Holland, &#8220;Vernor Vinge Obituary&#8221;<em>,\u00a0<\/em><em>The Guardian<\/em><\/a>, 29 March 2024<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.walshmedicalmedia.com\/open-access\/exploring-the-habitability-goldilocks-zone-the-delicate-balance-for-life-133639.html\">Chary, Mark &#8220;Exploring the Habitability Goldilocks Zone: The Delicate Balance for Life&#8221;, <em>Journal of Astrobiology &amp; Outreach<\/em>, vol. 13, issue 2, no. 374<\/a>, 29 January 2025<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/astronomia-da-fantascienza\/centenario-della-fantascienza\">Click here<\/a>\u00a0for other articles of the series\u00a0Sci-fi Astronomy, edited by Camilla Pianta<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>*Astronomia da fantascienza, a cura di Camilla Pianta* A Fire Upon The Deep, quando l&#8217;ordine cosmico \u00e8 dinamico\u00a0\ud83c\udf0c What if universal constants were actually variables? COUNTDOWN TO APRIL 2026, THE CENTENARY OF SCIENCE FICTION: -1 \u00a0 Clicca qui per la versione italiana di questo articolo &nbsp; Famous for coining the term \u201ctechnological singularity\u201d and for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[332,327,322],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astronomia-da-fantascienza","category-iniziative-archivio","category-news-en"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Astronomia da fantascienza \ud83d\udc49 -1 - Osservatorio Astronomico della Regione Autonoma Valle d&#039;Aosta<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/en\/astronomia-da-fantascienza\/astronomia-da-fantascienza-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Astronomia da fantascienza \ud83d\udc49 -1 - Osservatorio Astronomico della Regione Autonoma Valle d&#039;Aosta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*Astronomia da fantascienza, a cura di Camilla Pianta* A Fire Upon The Deep, quando l&#8217;ordine cosmico \u00e8 dinamico\u00a0\ud83c\udf0c What if universal constants were actually variables? COUNTDOWN TO APRIL 2026, THE CENTENARY OF SCIENCE FICTION: -1 \u00a0 Clicca qui per la versione italiana di questo articolo &nbsp; Famous for coining the term \u201ctechnological singularity\u201d and for [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/en\/astronomia-da-fantascienza\/astronomia-da-fantascienza-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Osservatorio Astronomico della Regione Autonoma Valle d&#039;Aosta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-03T07:00:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-18T17:18:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/aaa5c70f0a6a42adb3dc289ff316f5f6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"15 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/en\/astronomia-da-fantascienza\/astronomia-da-fantascienza-1#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/en\/astronomia-da-fantascienza\/astronomia-da-fantascienza-1\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/#\/schema\/person\/1b8e4724484dfd1255a01a56a10d5854\"},\"headline\":\"Astronomia da fantascienza \ud83d\udc49 -1\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-03T07:00:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-18T17:18:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/en\/astronomia-da-fantascienza\/astronomia-da-fantascienza-1\"},\"wordCount\":2561,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/en\/astronomia-da-fantascienza\/astronomia-da-fantascienza-1#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/aaa5c70f0a6a42adb3dc289ff316f5f6.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Astronomia da fantascienza\",\"Iniziative archivio\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/en\/astronomia-da-fantascienza\/astronomia-da-fantascienza-1\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.oavda.it\/en\/astronomia-da-fantascienza\/astronomia-da-fantascienza-1\",\"name\":\"Astronomia da fantascienza \ud83d\udc49 -1 - 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