17 February 1600, Campo de’ Fiori, Rome, planet Earth.
Giordano Bruno is burned alive by the Authority of the time (specifically, the Holy Inquisition) for refusing abjuration of his heretical ideas, in particular: that our planet Earth was not unique; that other worlds similar to ours existed, around stars similar to our Sun.
Prior to his execution, Giordano said to his judges:
“Maiori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam ego accipiam.”
[“Perhaps you who pronounce this sentence are in greater fear than I who receive it.”]
Four hundred and twenty years later: we know 4173 “exoplanets“; planets outside the Solar System. We estimate that the total number of planets with dimensions similar to those of our planet Earth is something between 10 and 40 billions, in our Galaxy only.
“What we need today are universal values based not on faith but on scientific findings, common experience and common sense.”
14th Dalai Lama