Category Archives: Planet

Space Camp Joy

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

This blog was  originaly posted shortly after Easter 2019 –  This year sadly my Easter Space Camp for children can not take place due to COVID 19.  Ironicly the children are not in school for the same reason and Space Camp would have been a very useful event for both kids and parents struggling in this crisis. Stay safe, hope you enjoy this rerun. Children spinning their little handmade Saturn models with joy !! At Easter  I ran a small space camp for children. It was over three mornings in Louisburgh Co Mayo.The venue was Books at One, the local community bookshop.  We packed a lot of things into the three mornings, in fact, I had too much planned. Better too much than too little in my experience. Space Camp joy abounded ! Day 1 Space Camp We built paper rockets that we blew into space (in the room). I have a  box of interesting forever goodies. These are intended … Continue reading →

On Solar Spectrum and Humans

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

On Solar Spectrum and Humans I’ve always been fascinated by the links between the solar spectrum and humans. It is a visual thing coupled with some interesting interactions. The elements found in our sun are also found in us and all living things, Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Sulfur and Phosphorus. We eat the food produced by the sun and the Earth working together. Phototropism  pulls plants up towards the sunlight, likewise, geotropism pulls the roots into the ground via gravity. We, humans, are ultimately bound by the suns energy. Therefore we are wrapped up in it for all our lives in many ways. This idea has informed several paintings of which the above is one. Human Spectrum Painting I wanted to do a painting that expressed that interaction in some way. The spectra of our sun and other stars tells us what those stars are made from. The ingredients being different for each star, as are fingerprints and DNA in … Continue reading →

Venus and the Moon Danced at the Vatican Observatory Summer School

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

It is time for another guest post from Fernando Comerón.  Fernando is an astronomer with the European Southern Observatory.  His previous guest postings have been about using one of the world’s best telescopes at ESO in Chile (click here for that post) and about discovering the source of illumination of the North America Nebula (click here for that one) . About this new post, he writes “it is not about professional astronomy and large telescopes, but the subject has a much closer connection with the Vatican Observatory and I thought that readers of the blog may like to read the story”.  Muchas gracias, Dr. Comerón.  ¡Que los cielos sobre Chile estén despejados siempre que observes! Fernando Comerón, 25 Nov 2019 This story is not about observing with large professional telescopes on remote mountaintops, but about an observation done with one of the telescopes that some of the readers of Sacred Space Astronomy, perhaps yourself, support through the Vatican Observatory Foundation. … Continue reading →

On Peace Stars and Rainbows

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

Recently I came across this beautiful poem by Wendell Berry. Mr Berry is an award-winning American writer and poet. I found his poem inspiring and uplifting in these dark days. One line, in particular, stood out to me hence this blog on peace, stars and rainbows. “And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light” Stars In the daytime, the sun-facing side of our planet is saturated in light from our nearest star. Meanwhile, the night facing side is subject to the distant light of billions of stars. These stars of the night are invisible to us when the sun dominates our daytime lives. They become day-blind to us while they wait for the planet to rotate and bring their light in waiting to our eyes. Our day eliminates them from our vision and our minds. ( unless one of them goes supernova or there is a total solar eclipse available to us )   Rainbows Our sun … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists: Canon Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543); Heliocentricism

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 13 of 14 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

When the name Copernicus is mentioned, what often comes to mind is the role that his heliocentric theory played in the Galileo affair. This creates the false impression of Copernicus as a controversial figure at loggerheads with Church authority. In reality, Copernicus was himself a Church figure. He was a canon (a church administrative role that at the time required ordination to minor orders) at his uncle’s diocese in Warmia. He held a doctorate in canon law. When his heliocentric system was presented to Pope Clement VII in 1533, it was favorably and enthusiastically received. Cardinal von Schoenberg of Capua encouraged him in a letter to promulgate the theory widely. In the seventy years after the publication of De Revolutionibus (until Galileo published his Siderius Nuncius) Copernicus’ work saw almost no objections on theological grounds. Biographical Sketch: Mikołaj Kopernik was born in Toruń in modern-day Poland on (it is believed) February 19, 1473. His father was a copper merchant, and … Continue reading →

Transit of Mercury CHEOPS and Exoplanets

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

Drawing Yes, indeed I felt lucky to see the transit of mercury on November 11th. Black clouds full of heavy rain were in constant supply all morning. My PST telescope and drawing materials were in and out in the hope of a break in the weather. It was my intention to use the drawing to help explain the transit of Mercury, CHEOPS and Exoplanets. As you can see from the drawing above (which is not rotated) I got my first view of the tiny planet at 12:51. I sketched one black dot on top of my previously drawn solar disc. Then the rain bucketed down like rods with a big wind attached. Next chance came at 13:33 a second black dot added to the effort. Then it rained cats and dogs till 14:26 when my final opportunity gave me a third mercury dot to add to the sketch.  Most Irish observers had a similar story and images of this unique … Continue reading →

‘Hot Jupiter’ Exoplanet Found with 18-Hour Orbit

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

Astronomers have found an exoplanet that orbits its host star every 18 hours – a new record! Exoplanet NGTS-10 b has twice the mass of Jupiter, and orbits so close to its class K6V orange dwarf host star that the star’s gravity will flatten the planet into an oblate spheroid. The planet is classified as a “Hot Jupiter” – with the star-facing side of the planet being incandescently bright! Using data from the announcement paper on arXiv.org and The Extrasolar Planet Encyclopaedia, I added the star and exoplanet into SpaceEngine and took some screenshots; I actually spent quite a bit of time fooling around in this system… I took some artistic liberty with the comet-like tail and wide auroras, but I figured being cooked by the star’s heat, and blasted by the star’s stellar wind will cause the planet’s atmosphere to expand WAY out and be blown away, so why not?! Over 4000 exoplanets have been confirmed as of this … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Martian Sunrise

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 85 of 190 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in August, 2008; we first ran it here in 2016 A friend has a home on the western shore of Lake Huron, with a glorious view of the lake from her living room window. She tells how once she showed the sunrise over the lake through that window to her visiting four year old grandson. The boy took in the colorful display with rapt amazement. The next morning, she heard a shout from the living room. “Come quick, grandma!” cried the little boy. “It’s doing it again!” The [2008] discovery by the Phoenix spacecraft of ice in the Martian soil had all the inevitability of the sun rising yet again. But the scientists who found it were just as thrilled as that four year old boy. For thirty [now going on 40!] years we’ve known there must have been water on Mars. The spacecraft that orbited the planet in the 1970s sent back images … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: New Worlds

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 28 of 190 in the series Across the Universe

First published in The Tablet in June, 2007; we published it here in 2015 In early 2007, a team lead by Stéphane Udry of the Geneva Observatory announced the discovery around the red dwarf star Gliese 581 of a planet that is only eight times the mass of Earth and about 50 per cent bigger in radius. Orbiting close to its sun, its year is less than two weeks long; but because that star is so small and dim compared to ours, temperatures on the planet should range between zero and 40 degrees Celsius (about 30 to 100 Fahrenheit). Room temperature. Water should be liquid there, perhaps covering its surface with oceans ripe for life. At least, I hope it’s covered in oceans. Swimming would be easier than walking on a planet where the gravity is three and a half times that of Earth. The star is only 20 light years away from us; robot spaceships in the next 100 years … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: One Fix Leads to Another

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 22 of 190 in the series Across the Universe

First published in The Tablet in February, 2007; we first ran it here in 2016. I’ve moved it to March, this year, to fit the Lenten season. With my colleague Dan Britt from the University of Central Florida, for several years I’ve been measuring the densities and porosities of meteorites. The densities of different meteorite classes can be compared with their parent asteroids, to see how loosely packed they are; and the porosity of these rocks is an indication of how thoroughly their fabric has been cracked by the shock of the impacts that shattered those parent bodies. We started with the collection I curate at the Vatican; but there are many meteorite types that are underrepresented there. When I came to New York [in 2007] for a year’s sabbatical at Fordham University, I had hoped to extend our data by looking at the nearby American Museum of Natural History’s extensive collection. But things got off to a slow start. … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Europa

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 59 of 190 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in February, 2009; we ran it here for the first time in 2016. Under the dim light of a distant sun, a cold white ball smaller than our Moon orbits a huge gas planet, garishly striped with colored clouds. Galileo first saw this jovian moon – to be named “Europa” by his rival, Simon Marius – on January 7, 1610. In 1805, Laplace had worked out Europa’s mass (using an elaborate theory of the moons’ orbits), and other 19th century astronomers timed the way the Jupiter moons shadowed each other to estimate their sizes. By the end of that century clever instruments allowed Pickering to estimate its brightness. All the information was there. From these data, any schoolchild could have calculated that Europa was less dense than rock, more dense than ice, and brilliantly white. But no one actually put all that information together until 1908, when Pickering finally noted the low density and … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: The best way to travel

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 20 of 190 in the series Across the Universe

First published in The Tablet in January, 2007; we first ran it here in 2015.  Dark and dreary, January is a time to take off to new and exotic climes; or at least, to daydream about such trips. My own January voyage was a visit to my old hometown, snow-dusted Detroit, to attend a science fiction convention. But a panel discussion at that meeting, “Travel Destinations of the Solar System,” challenged us to imagine really exotic localities. Where among the planets would we love to go? And what it would be like to be standing there, in person? Panelist Bill Higgins, a radiation physicist at Fermi Lab in Chicago [and occasional blogger here at The Catholic Astronomer!], regularly presents spaceflight results as a NASA “Solar System Ambassador” at events like this. He described how Pluto and its moon Charon orbit each other while locked in a spin state that keeps each body always facing the other. “What if we could … Continue reading →