PRENOTA ONLINE

Conferenza a tema in lingua inglese con possibilità di traduzione simultanea con AI tramite web app e proprio smartphone (consigliato per un pubblico giovane e adulto)

In occasione del Darwin Day 2026

A cura di Xenophon Moussas
University of Athens

THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM:
THE GEARED CHOREOGRAPHER
OF THE COSMOS AND THE OLYMPIC CYCLES

The ancient Greeks had extremely advanced knowledge of Astronomy and Mechanics. Proof of this is the Antikythera mechanism, recovered from a shipwreck off the coast of the island of the same name, between 45 and 60 metres deep, in 1901.
It is accompanied by technical and astronomical inscriptions, a veritable “user manual”, engraved on all available surfaces of the device.
The Antikythera Mechanism is the oldest known computer in the world: a sophisticated mechanical device dating back to the 1st century BC, designed to predict with extraordinary precision. astronomical phenomena such as the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky, the phases and age of the Moon, solar and lunar eclipses, and the calendar of the Panhellenic Games (Olympic, Nemean, Pythian, Isthmian).

In occasione dello spettacolo sarà esposta in atrio una riproduzione del meccanismo ANTIKYTHERA che rimarrà in mostra per tutto il periodo olimpico e paraolimpico.

Xenophon Moussas astronomer and professor at the University of Athens. His research interest include Space Physics, Cosmic Rays and Solar Physics. He was Director of the Laboratory of Astrophysics and Director of the Observatory of the University of Athens.
He is one of the leading figures in the study of the Antikythera mechanism, of which he has built a model that will be on display in the atrium of the Planetarium for the duration of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.