Paolo Maffei (2 January 1926 – 1 March 2009
/ref>) was an Italian astrophysicist and science writer. He was born in Arezzo and was director of the Catania Observatory and an

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

Arcetri Arcetri is a location in Florence, Italy, positioned among the hills south of the city centre. __TOC__ Landmarks A number of historic buildings are situated there, including the house of the famous scientist Galileo Galilei (called '' Villa Il Gi ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

Asiago Asiago (; Venetian: ''Axiago'', Cimbrian: ''Slege'', German: ''Schlägen'' ) is a minor township (population roughly 6,500) in the surrounding plateau region (the ''Altopiano di Asiago'' or '' Altopiano dei Sette Comuni'', Asiago plateau) in th ...

and

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. He studied

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...

s, variable stars, galaxies and the evolution of the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. ...

. An internationally renowned astronomer, he was one of the pioneers of infrared astronomy research. In 1968 he discovered through infrared analysis two galaxies, otherwise unobservable because their light emission in the visible frequencies is absorbed by the dust that fills the plane of the Milky Way. The two galaxies were named after him: Maffei-1 (a galaxy that, if directly observable, would become one of the most visible objects in the sky) and Maffei-2. The two galaxies are the main constituents of the group known as "Maffei's Group of galaxies 1". Maffei also a historian of astronomy and popularizer of astronomy through a series of books, including ''Al di là della Luna'' (1973) and ''I mostri del cielo'' (1976). Asteroid 18426 Maffei is named for him.

Works

*''Al di là della Luna'' (1973) *''I mostri del cielo'' (1976) *''L'universo nel tempo'' (1982) *''La cometa di Halley: dal passato al presente'' (1984) *''Giuseppe Settele, il suo diario e la questione galileiana'' (1987) * Autobiographic paper: P.Maffei
"My Researches at the Infrared Doors"
Memorie della Società Astronomica Italiana, Vol. 74 n. 1, 2003, pag. 19-28 (PDF), (fro
"IV National Conference on Infrared Astronomy, in honour of Paolo Maffei"
Perugia, December 4–7, 2001).

References

1926 births 2009 deaths People from Arezzo Italian astrophysicists Italian male writers {{Italy-astronomer-stub

Works

See also

References