Category Archives: Science

Specola Guestbook: Dec 13, 1910 – Maurycy Rudzki

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This entry is part 20 of 21 in the series Specola Guestbook

Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory.  A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints. Today’s guestbook entry is from December 13, 1910, when Maurycy Rudzki made a visit. Next to his name, Maurycy Pius Rudzki (1862-1916) wrote, “k.k. Sternwarte Krakau” (The Royal Observatory of Krakow). [n.b. Moritz is a variation of Maurycy] Rudzki was a geophysicist who directed the department of geophysics and meteorology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. He was the first person to be formally called a professor of geophysics. He established the first seismological observatory in Krakow, and in 1904 started the bulletin, Resultate der meteorologischen, seismologischen und magnetischen Beobachtungen an der k.k. Sternwarte in Krakau. His research included seismology, oceanography, meteorology, and cartography.  In geophysics, his research focused on elastic anisotropy as it pertained to the propagation of seismic waves.     … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists: Sr. Miriam Michael Stimson O.P. (1913-2002); Structure of DNA

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This entry is part 9 of 9 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

In 1962, Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize for discovering the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule.  This work could not have been done without the discoveries of numerous other scientists, many of whose contributions have gone unrecognized. One such unsung hero in the quest for the building blocks of life was a Catholic nun at a humble Michigan university: Sr. Miriam Michael Stimson, O.P. Biographical Sketch: Marian Emma Stimson was born into a devout Catholic family in Chicago on December 14, 1913. She attended Sienna Heights College in Adrian, Michigan. In 1935, she joined the Adrian Dominican Sisters, taking the name Miriam Michael. She received a B.S. in Chemistry from Siena Heights College in 1936. She continued her studies at the Institutum Divi Thomae in Cincinnatti, where she received her M.S. in 1939. She then joined the chemistry faculty at Siena Heights College, simultaneously working toward her Ph.D. at Institutum Divi Thomae, which she … Continue reading →

Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau – Google Doodle Scientist

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There is a new “Google Doodle” for a scientist today—Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau.  You have probably seen it.  Google states that his work “led to the birth of cinema”.  Well, guess what?  According to an old edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia, Plateau was “a sincere Christian, faithful to all the duties of a practical Catholic”. If you are interested in his work, the journal Physics in Perspective published an article on him in 2012: “The Life and Work of Joseph Plateau: Father of Film and Discoverer of Surface Tension”.  Click here for an excerpt.  Click here to get the entire article from Physics in Perspective.  The entire article is also freely available via EBSCO, through many public and academic libraries. Plateau was born in 1801 and died in 1883.  According to Physics in Perspective, “Plateau dedicated himself passionately to the study of … soap membranes until 1844, when he gradually became blind.”  Thus for much of his career Plateau could … Continue reading →

Endeavour Space Academy – 2019 Session #2: An Unexpected Lesson in Light Pollution

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I started off our last club meeting by showing my “In the Sky” post I’d written the day before – hey… why not!? Several of the students said that they had seen Ursa Major, and a couple said they could see the Mizar/Alcor double star! This week’s constellation was Cassiopeia; I showed the students where to find the constellation, and some deep-sky objects in the Cassiopeia, including the open cluster M103. I discussed the differences between open and globular star clusters, and showed a few examples of each. We discussed galaxy mergers, and I showed this animation of galaxy mergers seen from different perspectives: We then discussed how the Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way will collide in several billion years; I showed this PBS video about the collision: During the video, one of the students asked my wife “What is that band of stars behind the narrator?” I stopped the video, and brought up a photo of the Milky Way … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Asking the right questions

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This entry is part 43 of 185 in the series Across the Universe

This column ran in The Tablet in October, 2007; we first ran it here in 2015 My first scientific paper, more than thirty [forty!] years ago, was a review of the icy moons of Jupiter. Knowing only the mass and volume of the moon Europa and the evidence of its bright surface, I calculated that Europa’s density matched a mixture of rock and ice, with enough rock (90%) that its natural trace radioactivity would, over the age of the solar system, melt the ice. Europa, I asserted, should have a shiny thin ice crust, a moon-like rocky center, and a liquid ocean water between the two. I even speculated about creatures swimming in that ocean. Then the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft arrived and mapped that moon, showing the kinds of cracks expected for ice overlaying an ocean. And Europa deflected Jupiter’s magnetic field just like a salty, electrically conductive ocean might do. Now I’ve been invited to co-author the lead … Continue reading →

God’s Work Revealed in the Tiny and the Creepy

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Visit the Vatican Observatory Faith and Science pages and you might come upon information about Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717), who saw the hand of God in things that make many people’s skin crawl.  In an introduction to one of her books she writes, Ever since my youth I have been engaged in the examination of insects. I began with silkworms in my native city of Frankfurt, but then, noticing that much more beautiful butterflies, both nocturnal and diurnal, emerged from caterpillars, I was moved to gather together all the caterpillars I could find and to make observations of their metamorphoses. For this reason I set aside my social life and devoted all my time to these observations and to improving my abilities in the art of painting, so that I could both draw individual specimens and paint them in lively colors. No doubt Merian stood out in her world!  She had two daughters who she sometimes recruited to assist her. … Continue reading →

50th Anniversary of Two Major Meteorite Falls, Rocks from Space

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We are all aware of the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo Moon landing. However, we may not be aware of two other events that occurred that year: two significant meteorite falls, Allende and Murchison. Meteorites are our major source of material from other worlds, “rocks from space.” At 1:05 am on February 8, 1969, a fireball (a very bright meteor) was seen over the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The fireball broke up in the atmosphere and ultimately yielded over 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) of meteoritic material. This was the Allende meteorite, the largest carbonaceous chondritic meteorite ever found. There were probably thousands of pieces spread out over about 150 square kilometers (60 square miles) near the village of Allende. At about 10:58 am on September 28, 1969, a fireball was seen over the state of Victoria in Australia. The fireball broke up into three pieces and over 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of fragments were eventually found spread out over … Continue reading →

‘Hot Jupiter’ Exoplanet Found with 18-Hour Orbit

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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 →

Brahe’s crater

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This entry is part 9 of 11 in the series Lunarcy

The area around Tycho is so busy that you have to study it in pieces. Here we start with Tycho (88km dia.) on left of center fand look to the east (right). One of the first things we run into is below and east of Tycho and the largest named crater in this image, Maginus (168km) an oft overlooked crater lying between the spectacular Tycho and magnificent Clavius (just off the southern edge of this image). Between Tycho and Maginus is the crater Street ( 60km). Then below and to the right of Maginus is a sideways Mickey Mouse formed by three craters. The larger crater in this trio is Deluc (49km). From Tycho going east we see Pictet (65km) almost adjacent and further is Saussure (56km) with and interesting flat bottom. Above this last crater is another large one, Orontius (126km) with a triplet of craters just east of it in order, Huggins (66km), Nasireddin (54km) and above it … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists: Fr. Francesco Grimaldi S.J. (1618-1663), Optics of Diffraction

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This entry is part 8 of 9 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

Today I present yet another Jesuit physicist/astronomer: Francesco Maria Grimaldi.  He made a number of contributions in physics and astronomy, many of which in collaboration with another Jesuit: Fr. Giovanni Battista Riccioli S.J. (1598-1671). I will deal with Riccioli in a future post. However, Grimaldi can take full credit for pioneering the study of diffraction of light, and in coining the term, “diffraction.” Biographical Sketch:   Grimaldi was born in Bologna in 1618. His father, a wealthy silk merchant, died when Francesco was still very young. In 1632 (at age 14) he entered the Jesuit order with his brother Vincenzo.  After two years as a novice, he studied rhetoric for a year in Novellara. In 1635 he traveled to Parma for philosophy studies at the college of S. Rocco, but after only one year transferred to Ferrara to begin studying physics. He returned to Bologna to finish his philosophy studies. In 1638 he he was missioned to be professor at … Continue reading →

Endeavour Space Academy – 2019 Session #1

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For our first after-school club meeting of 2019, Mrs. Trembley introduced us both as volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassadors; I told the students I was the outreach officer for the Warren Astronomical Society, and about the WAS’ free open house and star party – every 4th Saturday of the month at Stargate Observatory – which happens THIS Saturday! I told the students I work for the Vatican Observatory Foundation, and that I write a weekly “In the Sky” post… and that they should read it. 🙂 We told the students our goal this year was to get them observing the nighttime sky – we’re starting them off with the constellation Ursa Major (and the Big Dipper) – which I wrote about in my latest “In the Sky” post. I was truly surprised by how many of the students had never noticed the Big Dipper in the northwestern sky, or if they had, were unaware of what it was! I had … Continue reading →

At the Catena

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This entry is part 8 of 11 in the series Lunarcy

The great “walled plain” taking up the upper right quarter of this image is Ptolemaeus (158km dia.) with the more recent crater Ammonias (9km) prominent on its northern floor. Most of us lunar observers knew this latter crater as Lyot when we were kids. That name has now been given to a crater on the southeast limb. Above Ptolemaeus is the smaller crater Herschel (43 km) with its slumped walls and complex infilling. Then below is Alphonsus (121km) sporting dark haloed craters on its floor. The crater Davy is the shallow 21km diameter crater near the inset image with Davy A (15km) on it’s southeastern (lower right) wall. Catena Davy can be seen as a string of craterlets some 50km long, just left of center to the northeast of the crater on the floor of the crater Davy Y (70km). The inset (spacecraft) image shows some of the craterlets in the chain near the eastern wall of Davy Y that … Continue reading →