ⓜ Space for all of us
And then I wrote... This one dates from the International Year of Astronomy. It was published in the Times (of London) Higher Education Supplement on June 25, 2009.
One of the odd side-effects of being an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory is that we often get elected to various positions in professional astronomical societies. It may be the special respect that our fellow scientists have for the Vatican; or, more likely, the fact that we don’t have to spend a large part of our days writing grant proposals (in competition with everyone else) to fund our research means that, unlike most astronomers, we have the free time to spend on these important but time-consuming offices.
I'll take any excuse to run another gratuitous pretty astropicture, in this case, the Horsehead Nebula as imaged at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope.
Whatever the reason, it has meant that for the past few years I have been watching the buildup to the IYA – the International Year of Astronomy – from the vantage point as a past president of Commission 16 (Moons and Planets) of the International Astronomical Union, and as chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. Dedicating a year to promoting astronomy seemed like a sort of “motherhood” proposition; who could possibly be against it? (Plus, it made a nice break from all those arguments about Pluto.) My organizations both happily endorsed it.
But for that same reason, it also felt like a sort of pointless task. Everyone already likes astronomy; why do we need a special year to promote it? What’s more, astronomy is perhaps already too accessible to the general public. While you need a clever lecturer to fool you into thinking that you can understand, say, the Theory of Evolution, anyone can download for themselves all those glorious astronomical images. No need to leave your couch and go to your local science museum.
In Britain, at least, some of those concerns are probably well founded. Here the astronomers have been in competition with the Darwin Centennial; and compared to Darwin, the astronomers have neither the “hook” of celebrating a local hero nor the cachet of controversy to draw people to our events. One museum director recently bemoaned to me the fact that Darwin lectures at his institution have drawn loud crowds, while astronomy talks are a much harder sell.
Galileo, whose telescope is being celebrated by the IYA, is of course a much bigger hero in Italy. Perhaps ironically, it’s the Vatican that has most forcefully celebrated him as a local celebrity: a great thinker and good Catholic, who didn’t let the opposition of certain of his contemporaries tarnish either his science or his faith. His two daughters, after all, were both nuns; and he wrote and published some of his greatest scientific work after his infamous trial.)
A replica of Galileo's telescope was put on display at the American Academy in April 2011
The real impact of the IYA, however, first struck me at the opening ceremonies last January. At the Paris headquarters of UNESCO, representatives of astronomy from every nation in the UN – scientists and museum directors and students – were gathered to celebrate the Year with talks and seminars and social events. I was one of the Vatican’s official representatives, wandering the hallways for several days in my formal suit and clerical collar.
Now, contrary to the popular cliché, the usual working attire of a Jesuit brother and scientist is neither a clerical shirt nor a white lab coat. As an American of a certain generation, I chose science as a career in no small part because it allowed me to go to work in jeans and a tee-shirt. Wearing a suit, never mind a clerical collar, made me feel like a child dressed up for Halloween.
It’s not that I am ashamed of my religious life; quite the contrary. I am equally proud to be a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and equally uncomfortable wearing my “Brass Rat”, the bulky MIT class ring. But, yes, I’ll admit I did have a fear that people who didn’t know me might see simply the uniform and not the person wearing it.
My fellow astronomers are perfectly comfortable with me having a religious life. It turns out...
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Diary of the Specola: Astronomy under lock-down, Part 2
Since my last posting about what we’re up to, several other members of the Vatican Observatory have chimed in with their short reports on what they've been up to in this time of pandemic...
Paul Mueller, as seen from a safe distance, grilling for the community...
In the spring semester, Fr. Paul Mueller SJ normally teaches a philosophy of science course at the Pontifical Gregorian University; his offering this year is “Philosophical Questions in Biology”. And of course now he has shifted to on-line teaching, Meanwhile, as the superior of the community and vice-director of the Observatory, he has charge of the day to day running of the operation in Castel Gandolfo. He writes, “I’ve been working day-to-day with the Observatory’s lay staff members to determine whether they will come to work and what they can be doing, within the limits we must observe. All of us Jesuits have had extra time for reading and prayer. And last evening we had a cookout!”
Fr. Gabriele Gionti SJ is also in Castel Gandolfo. He writes, “In this period of shutdown for Covid-19 I am working on my research [in quantum gravity]. In particular, after submitting my latest paper to the electronic archives, I answered e-mails of other scientists asking questions on it. This has given me new ideas how to start new research lines. I am continuing my pastoral activities doing spiritual directions through Skype and social media as well as continuing to give hope a courage to many friends on the phone. Since we are in quarantine, we have more spiritual activities in Community, Masses together, Office of the hours and special prayers with the Pope on television as well as more social activities within our community”
Back in Tucson, Fr. Richard Boyle SJ continues his research on stellar photometry: “For this VATT shutdown time, I am enjoying processing and analyzing my VATT observations of January 20 - 29 on star cluster NGC 188, first time observed in the detail of the Vilnius photometric system. I hope to show new information about stellar evolution by a comparison of this old 4.3-billion yr. cluster to the also old, 2.6-billion yr. cluster M 67.”
Finally, Br. Bob Macke SJ is waiting things out in northern California, where he had been assigned for a Jesuit program called Tertianship, the last stage of Jesuit formation leading up to final vows. He had been assigned to work at Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose, California... until the high school went online. He writes, “Between Tertianship and getting stranded in San Jose, I haven't had much opportunity lately to do much research. Nevertheless, I recently received news that two papers for which I am listed as a coauthor (with two different groups of collaborators) have been accepted for publication. I am currently involved in a project to use the Bellarmine College Preparatory School's Maker Lab to produce inexpensive protective gear for medical workers, for whom such equipment is in short supply.”
Diary of the Specola: Astronomy under lock-down
Half of the astronomers from the Vatican Observatory work out of Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and the other half in Tucson. Italy has been under a strict lock-down for several weeks, while the University of Arizona is also closed and members of staff are strongly urged to stay home. In particular, all the telescopes at the Mount Graham International Observatory, including the Vatican's Advanced Technology Telescope (the VATT), have been shut down in order to allow the day staff to stay down the mountain, closer to home and family (and, should it be necessary, medical care.)
The offices of the Specola in Castel Gandolfo are on the ground floor; the Jesuit community lives upstairs over the offices. The commute is just a flight of stairs...
But our “commute” in Castel Gandolfo is just walking downstairs from the community living quarters to the Specola offices. And our home in Tucson is well served by the internet. (In fact, my own office as president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation is just a room in our house here in Tucson.)
Still, I was curious to find out what people have been up to. So I wrote to folks both in Tucson (where I am myself at the moment) and in Italy to see what’s been going on. Here’s what some of them have passed on to me...
Fr. Jean Baptiste Kikwaya Eluo SJ writes: I used to go to the gym to exercise first thing in the morning followed by daily work in my office on the University campus, until time for the daily Mass at Newman Center on the Campus, then back home to join my Jesuit brothers for half an hour social time before the community dinner. Now that the gym is closed, I cannot go openly to my office, and St Thomas More church is also closed, I had to reinvent new routines that took some time to start flowing. Work is now the first thing I get myself involved in, and I have to wait for the sun to start to go down to go either walking, jogging or biking to close the day. Fortunately, I find time to keep up with prayer and Mass at home, to follow some university conferences online through zoom, to check with friends in US and abroad to find out how they too cope with the lock-down. I am wrapping up my current project on physical properties of very faint Near Earth Objects, and also I open myself up to a new area of research: dust production in comets and meteors.
Recently Fr. Chris Corbally SJ was able to upgrade his laptop at the community residence to have a large external screen, a knockdown effect from the installation of three very large monitors at VATT. So he has found it an easy enough transition to work from home. He is comparing spectra of normal stars with those of a peculiar variable star, which is suspected of being not one but two stars. These spectra were obtained by colleagues with VATT in February. The large screen also helped him referee an article, which required the parallel comparison of several related ones.
Fr. Alessandro Omizzolo (right), along with fellow Specola astronomer Fr. Matteo Galaverni works from Padua; the ancient tower behind them is home to the University of Padua astronomy department, where Alessandro works in happier times.
Fr. Alessandro Omizzolo works from the astronomy department in Padua, in the north of Italy that has been hardest hit by the virus. Describing his days at home, he writes: It is very hard to live in these conditions of total isolation. I live like an astronomer-hermit. Besides breakfast and lunch, the morning is divided into periods of prayer, celebration of Mass, and then work at the computer (astro-ph, reading articles, preparing articles). My research is on jellyfish galaxies, isolated nearby galaxies (through the images taken past in the year at the VATT), and bright his-z quasars (z>4). Also some new Einstein cross gravitational lens observations. Once or twice a week I teleconference with colleagues in the working group. Afternoons, after about 3-4 hours of work, I listen to music, I read and I dedicate myself to the cleaning of the house. It is important to keep in this time telephone or whatsapp contacts with friends and acquaintances. Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings are dedicated to the preparation of the Sunday homily that I send through the parish website to parishioners.
Fr. David Brown SJ was supposed to be moving to Tucson this spring, but that is still on hold; meanwhile he has kept up his research from Castel Gandolfo. During this time of quarantine, he is working on processing the data obtained from the VATT during an observing run in February 2020, mainly looking at the spectra of stars. Likewise, part of his time is being spent examining the spectra of stars from the PEPSI collaboration and working on completing a few journal articles.
Andromeda Galaxy. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Also in Rome, Fr. Richard D’Souza SJ writes: I am using the time during the shutdown to finish three big writing projects: The first is about the accretion of dwarf galaxy satellites in the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy, which my collaborators and I started writing nearly a year ago. The second is a review article about the stellar outskirts of galaxies like the Milky Way, and what we can learn about their formation history. The third is a popular article about the history and the ongoing work of the Specola for the journal of the Italian Physical Society.
Every spring semester, Fr. Paul Gabor SJ teaches history and philosophy of astronomy at the University of Arizona in Tucson, typically with a score of students, mainly juniors and seniors. This semester, he was very happy to be teaching in a newly refurbished classroom full of new electronic displays. It fit well with his “flipped classroom” approach, where students read handouts and listen to his talks as homework, while class time is devoted to discussions and group work. Unfortunately, since spring break the classroom has been empty; all University of Arizona classes have gone to remote mode. But with the “flipped classroom,” it was easy to make the transition. He still holds class sessions twice a week at the usual time but online using Zoom. All of his 25 students are accounted for(only one cannot make it to their regular Zoom class sessions). He finds that some students are understandably distracted with the extraordinary, uncertain and unsafe circumstances, preoccupied with the situation at home, etc. but he says,“I am confident that we shall manage to complete the course, without compromising its academic level.”
ⓜ Turn right at Orion?
(And Then I Wrote...) In order to let my backlog of "Across the Universe" columns build up a bit, I am republishing a selection of other articles that I have written and published in various places...
This was one of my favorite book reviews... I got to be snarky and still give the book an enthusiastic thumb's up! The review ran in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences in 2001.
Turn Right at Orion: Travels Through the Cosmos by Mitchell Begelman. Perseus Publishing/Helix Books, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 2000, 264 pp.
I have to admit, I had every reason to hate this book before I even cracked open a page. As the co-author myself of a bestselling astronomy book called Turn LEFT at Orion (published more than ten years ago by Cambridge University Press, with a new edition just out), I obviously have my own opinion about how to find one’s way around the galaxy! And the plot device of this book, a sort of “manuscript-found-in-a-bottle” travelogue through the galaxy by some future astronomer, is either time-honored or hoary with age depending on your perspective. Who is this author, Mitchell Begelman, anyway?
This being the internet age, I checked out his curriculum vitae on the web. Turns out Begelman is an astronomy professor at the University of Colorado and Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, and the co-author (with Sir Martin Rees) of a prize-winning popular science book, Gravity’s Fatal Attraction. Digging deeper, I also found that he graduated from Bronx Science High in 1970. Hey – that makes him a classmate of my old MIT roommate, Paul Mailman. I dashed off an e-mail to Paul.
“Small world,” said Paul, “I was just chatting about Mitch the other day with another classmate.” Paul checked out Dr. Begelman’s web page, though, and hesitated on his identification. “Gee, the guy I remember was skinny, and had a lot more hair!”
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Remembering Bill Stoeger: New Videos
Bill Stoeger, priest, cosmologist, and lover of the fine things that the universe had to offer.
Today (March 24) marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Fr. Bill Stoeger. Many of us remember him for both his brilliant academic mind and his holy and gentle personality. Over the years there have been a number of posts here about him and his work... he was both a cosmologist (classmate and friend of Stephen Hawking, collaborator and co-author with a number of the great cosmologists of our era) and as a theologian. He also was greatly sought after as a spiritual director.
He was also widely sought after as a speaker and subject of videos. His style was very different from most media-savvy astronomers; rather than having a glib answer ready to hand, he would speak slowly, gently, but clearly, weighing each word... and making the interviewer feel that this was perhaps the first time that question had been asked (even when in reality it was the millionth time!)
Recently, at the Specola we got a lovely email message from Fr. Christof Wolf SJ of the Jesuit School of Philosophy in Munich. Many years ago – in 2001– they had made a video of Fr. Stoeger; now, with the free time that came with the virus lock down, he finally had a time to go through the tapes and make five more short videos based on those interviews. I loved watching them, not because he breaks new ground here (that wasn't his intent) but just because seeing him as he was, in his prime, reminds me again of what a treasure he was to have in our community at the Vatican Observatory
Take a look at them, from the Loyola Productions Munich YouTube channel:
1 Is the traditional view of the cosmos being created compatible with the contemporary astrophysical theories of the evolution of the cosmos?
2 How did you become an astronomer? How do you integrate your work as a scientist with being a Catholic priest?
3 In the 16th century Fr. Eusebio Kino S.J. studied astronomy and mathematics in order to be a good missionary. Do you see yourself in that tradition? Or is the situation totally different today?
4 Do remote cosmic events have an effect on human activity on earth?
5 Is there extra-terrestrial life? And if there is extra-terrestial life, what would that mean for us?
You can also find these videos on our Faith and Science pages (click here).
ⓜ An Elder View of the Solar System
(And Then I Wrote...) In order to let my backlog of "Across the Universe" columns build up a bit, I am republishing a selection of other articles that I have written and published in various places...
I found this on the website of the Book Haven in Stanford...
A well-known secret of book reviews is that reviews of bad books are lots more fun to write, and read. On the other hand, having been an author myself, I feel bad about scoring points off someone who's not around to defend themselves. Every book represents a year of some poor author's life, and it is just as much hard work to write a bad book as a good one.
Well, this one was a doozie. It was also the first book I was ever sent to review, dating from back when I still worked as a professor at Lafayette College, before I joined the Jesuits. My anger was more directed at the major publisher who allowed it to be printed; the author was certainly open to his own opinions. (And he avoided having to invent his own fact by simply ignoring any data.) The review ran in Icarus in 1988.
As with my previous bad review, I am keeping the entire review including the book and author behind the firewall. No need to embarrass them any further. But I will give you the opening paragraph, simply to show off how I could begin to review a serious science book about the origin of the solar system by quoting Thomas Aquinas!
A principle of ancient Greek philosophy, further developed in the Middle Ages by Thomas Aquinas, held that natural reason could, in principle, discover atleast some aspects of the eternal law of God without recourse to divine revelation. A modern variant on this theme might be that a sufficiently clever scientist should, in principle, be able to reproduce the accumulated wisdom of an entire field of science without recourse to the published literature...
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ⓜ The Observer’s Guide to Astronomy
(And Then I Wrote...) In order to let my backlog of "Across the Universe" columns build up a bit, I am republishing a selection of other articles that I have written and published in various places...
This is the cover of Volume II, available on eBay
Keeping up my pattern this month of book reviews, I include here a review of a The Observer’s Guide to Astronomy, Volume I. edited by Patrick Martinez in the late 1980s; translated by Storm Dunlop into English in 1994. My review ran in Icarus volume 117, pp. 216–217, in 1995. So why bother reading about a book that is now more than thirty years old? As I argue at the end of the review, "This book, written for the amateur today, may find its greatest long-term professional importance in the future as a lucid and detailed record of how astronomy used to be done, way back in the 20th century."
It also shows my typical style of book reviewing. All book reviews are personal opinions; and so I am not shy about injecting personal stories into the review!
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A Memorial for George
A wall at LeMoyne College, where Fr. George Coyne taught after retiring from the Vatican Observatory, features Fr. Coyne and his view of the universe
We have set up a memorial page for Fr. George Coyne: click here, or type in www.VOFoundation.org/fr-george-coyne/
We have three goals for this memorial page.
First, we want to provide a place where people can post their memories of Fr. George.
Second, we want to help organize a memorial book which would include a selection of his writings and the memories posted at that site.
And third, we want to raise enough money to let us publish that book and continue the work that George so loved:
- the science of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope
- the education of young astronomers, especially from the developing world
- the engagement with the public with our astronomy
- our vision of faith and science working together
Please take a look at that page, and contribute what you can, as you can. We're hoping to raise a significant amount of money, and we already have one major gift to start things off, but we'll also look for lots of smaller amounts as well.
We ask that if you want your remembrance posted (and published) that you contribute to the cause. But you don't have to pay by the word!
The Science of the VATT
The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) has been in regular operation for twenty five years now, and it is a mainstay of our scientific efforts.
There are two questions I get about it all the time. What good is a relatively small (1.8 meter aperture) telescope in the days of giant telescopes and space telescopes? And, related to that question... what actually has the VATT accomplished?
"Angels in the Dome" Photo of the VATT Dome by Ryan Ferguson of Flyback Productions
The answer to the first is simple. Discoveries are made with small telescopes, and then confirmed or studied in depth with big telescopes.
If you think about it, that shouldn't be surprising. Rarely can you afford to "take a chance" with a big telescope on observing something that may or may not turn out to be interesting, because there is so much competition for observing time on those telescopes. Astronomers have to write up detailed proposals well in advance of when they want to use those telescopes. A committee will go over all of them, to ration out the time only to the small fraction that show the most likelihood of getting useful results. That's only logical; but it means that they miss out of making unexpected discoveries. Instead, telescopes where time is not quite a precious get to make the first stabs at surveys, or long term projects, or just plain wild ideas that may turn out to be fruitful.
But in addition, as you can see with some of the success stories from the VATT, there are actually a variety of observations that small telescopes can do better than big telescopes... due to their larger field of view, for example.
To answer the second question, what has the VATT actually accomplished so far, we've put together a little four-page flyer to distribute at our talks and events. And as our telescope is also a wonderful symbol of the message we want to convey here at this Sacred Space Astronomy site, it occurs to me that our readers here might be interested in reading about what it's all about, as well.
(And remember... your paid membership to this site helps support the science we are doing here, as well as our education and public outreach programs!)
VATT FlyerFacing the next apocalypse: Diary of March 7, 2020
Let's see... how many ways will the world end, this week?
False color image of the planetary nebula NGC 6781. The bright star at the center of the nebula is the source of the gas and dust that make up the nebula. The reds and purples are ionized hydrogen; the blues and greens are primarily ionized oxygen.
We've got the Corvid-19 virus; it has killed too many people already, scared a lot more, and disrupted everybody's life right now, whether they are scared or just being reasonably cautious. (Thanks to that virus, we have had to postpone our biennial Vatican Observatory Summer School for a year, to 2021, simply because arranging for international travel for students from around the world to a country, Italy, that has been one of the first hit has become awkward, to say the least.) I am planning to travel later this month; I hope it will still be possible.
We've got politics as worse than usual in many countries of the world; the only thing that unites us all, it seems, is horror at those other leaders who disagree with me.
We've got conflict within the Church, the folks supporting our work, with all sorts of nasty innuendos passed back and forth.
Plus wars, and rumors of wars.
An original copy of Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems—Copernican and Ptolemaic (written in Italian, not in Latin).
Know what it reminds me of? Galileo. When he was trying to get his famous book on the Two World Systems (the one that got him into trouble) published in Rome, the negotiations took forever because for much of that time Florence (where Galileo was) and Rome (where the Pope was) were quarantined due to the plague. The time all this was happening was right at the height of the 30 Years War, which split Europe apart not only along religious lines but also on political lines; in fact, the Pope whom Galileo was negotiating with was being accused of being a closet Protestant because he wasn't doing more to support the (supposedly pro-Catholic) Spanish side against the side led by the Protestant King but financed by the (supposedly Catholic) French.
Want to know more about Galileo? Check out our Faith and Science Resource Site's Galileo pages...
And yet, even as Galileo suffered from a very unjust trial, somehow his ideas survived. And we all remember Galileo. Do you recall the name of the Pope? Or his enemies? Or can you name one general of the 30 Years War? (If so, you're probably a fan of a popular time-travel series of SF books set during that time!)
Meanwhile, did you remember to subscribe to Sacred Space Astronomy? Last diary here, we had 9637 on the roll call and 161 paid subscribers. As of today, the numbers are 9765 on the roll call, and 163 subscribers... it is nice to keep growing but I could wish we grew faster. (If a virus can spread exponentially, why can't we?) Please, tell more people about our site; and if you can, please subscribe at a rate of $10 a month (cheaper than a Himalayan Salt Lamp!) or $100 per year. Or even consider signing up a friend or two
ⓜ A History of Asteroids
(And Then I Wrote...) In order to let my backlog of "Across the Universe" columns build up a bit, I am republishing a selection of other articles that I have written and published in various places...
Asteroid 21 Lutetia. Credit: ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
One of the pleasures of the time I get to spend in Tucson is meeting up once a week for lunch with a bunch of fellow asteroid scientists... these gatherings of "Asteroid Lunch" go back to my graduate student days; they were already happening when I arrived in 1975, so they are now more than 45 years old!
This winter, a historian of planetary sciences, Cliff Cunningham, started showing up. And as soon as I saw him, I wanted to hide... because I recalled writing for Sky and Telescope a really negative review of a history of asteroids book many years earlier, and I was afraid it was his book; and if he ever found out...
Well, after a couple of weeks like this, I finally looked up the title of the review. It was indeed a tough review. But it was not his book. Whew!
So I mentioned it to Cliff a week later, and he asked if he could see a copy of it. I finally dug it up. And here it is: with an unexpected Easter egg at the end!
Of course, you have to be a paid-up member of Sacred Space Astronomy to read it, past the firewall...
ⓜ Seeing versus understanding
(And Then I Wrote...) In order to let my backlog of "Across the Universe" columns build up a bit, I am republishing a selection of other articles that I have written and published in various places...
I'm not the only guy to use the microscope in my meteorite lab; this chemist from Argentina brought his own white lab coat...
The year 2009 marked the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope, and there were a number of articles and publications in its honor. This one I wrote for a special publication in the US in honor of the International Year of Astronomy... and as an extra treat, it includes yet another funny story about the big gas spectra tube at the U of Arizona Lunar Lab that I wrote about last month in our "Stupid Astronomer" series...
In my astronomical work, I use a microscope as much as a telescope. Though I do spend time every year observing at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in southern Arizona, the majority of my time is spent in a laboratory in the gardens of the Pope’s summer home outside Rome, measuring the physical properties of meteorites.
Nowadays almost all of our ability to explore the universe, using the light gathered by telescopes, depends on work done here on Earth in laboratories like those here at the Vatican Observatory. The most obvious use of laboratory data in telescope astronomy...
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