The first day of the World Copernican Congress concluded with a keynote address by Professor Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor, Swiss astronomer and professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Geneva.

The researcher analysed the changes that have taken place in science over the last 100 years and the change in our perception of the cosmos. The Swiss scientist is one of the winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics, which he received together with Prof Didier Queloz (also present at the Copernican World Congress), for the discovery of a planet orbiting the twin Sun-like star 51 Pegasi.

In his speech at the World Copernican Congress, the physicist emphasised that over the past few decades, researchers have made many discoveries, expanding the previous limits of cognition.

– We are not the first to wonder whether there is still a human being somewhere in the universe. Already two thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher Epicurus argued that there are an infinite number of worlds in the cosmos, the physicist explained. – Regardless of opinions on the subject over the centuries, such questions have not disappeared over these two thousand years, added Prof Mayor.