Two years ago, I wrote my first blog entry, entitled “Asteroids Named for Jesuits.”  It’s time for an update. What prompts this update is the news that the Vatican Observatory’s own Fr. Christopher Corbally has been honored with the naming of asteroid 119248 Corbally.  There are now six asteroids named for members of the Vatican Observatory. For those who don’t know him, Fr. Corbally is a member of the English Jesuit province. He joined the Vatican Observatory in 1983, and has played an important role in the research activities of our Tucson half of the Observatory. His astronomical studies include multiple star systems, spectral classification of stars, 𝜆-Boötis stars, and more. He has also studied human sentience in an evolutionary context, recently co-authoring a book on the subject: The Emergence of Religion in Human Evolution. He has served as vice director of the Vatican Observatory Research Group in Tucson. He is president of National Committee for Astronomy in the Vatican … Continue reading →