He started his interest in astronomy in childhood, later becoming a professional astronomer, earning a PhD in astronomy at the
Sapienza University of Rome in 2006. At the same time, he devoted a lot of effort to
science communication, on the international stage. His professional interests include asteroids and comets, variable stars and extrasolar planets, with many contributions in all those fields. He was able to determine the date that
Vincent van Gogh painted
Starry Night Over the Rhone by studying the star placement. In 2006 he started the Virtual Telescope project (part of Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory), consisting of several robotic telescopes, remotely available in real-time over the Internet. Through this system, real-time online observations are performed; sharing the universe with the world. More than 1,000,000 individuals each year observe the sky through the Virtual Telescope. == Awards and honors ==