The perception we naturally have of space derives from our senses and from the experiences of mobility that happen to us during our lives. Accordingly, it is limited to spatial dimensions comparable to those of our body (around 1 metre) and to the distances we are able to cover on the Earth’s surface. Without the aid of instruments such as microscopes and telescopes, most of the space around us and within us is invisible to our eyes. The images show us the universe up to the scale measurable at the present time, and matter down to the scale of the minutest known particles. Perhaps this short journey into space — infinitely large and infinitely small — can help to appreciate the great complexity of the universe that is the backdrop to natural processes and human activities, traces of which can be seen in the collections of the Museum.
