Giovanni Bignami is one of the most renowned astrophysicists in Italy and Europe. A member of the French Académie des Sciences and Italy’s Accademia dei Lincei, he is former president of the Italian Space Agency and the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), and is the current president of the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics. A prolific scientist and educator, he has written hundreds of papers and authored nine books, some of which have been translated into nine languages. He writes columns for La Stampa and L’Espresso and appears regularly on SKY, RAI and RAI Scuola. In 2013, Bignami added the Vittorio De Sica Science Prize and an honorary degree from Moscow State University to a further eight honours garnered between 1996 and 2010. His books include I Marziani siamo noi (Zanichelli, 2010); Cosa resta da scoprire (2011), Il futuro spiegato ai ragazzi (2012), Il mistero delle sette sfere (2013) and Oro dagli asteroidi ed asparagi da Marte (with A. Sommariva, 2015), published by Mondadori Educational.