Spring 2015embracing, encouraging and promoting scientific study

VATICAN OBSERVATORYN E W S L E T T E R

Founded in 1891, the Vatican Observatory demonstrates the Church’s desire to embrace, encourage and promote scientific study, on the basis of

her conviction that ‘faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth’ (Fides et Ratio, Proemium).

For more information, email (katie@vaticanobservatory.org) or call (+1 (520) 795-1694).

Father José Funes, S.J.Director, Vatican Observatory

Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J.President, Vatican Observatory Foundation

OUR INCREDIBLE CHILE TOUR APRIL 2015

VATICAN OBSERVATORY FOUNDATION

So many exciting things have been

happening this spring, as you can see

just from paging through this newsletter.

But I’d like to highlight two in particular:

In January, we held our first Faith

and Astronomy Workshop, bringing

25 educators from parishes across the

country (including two from Mexico!)

to spend a week in Tucson learning

about astronomy and discussing how

we can share our joy of the stars. The

enthusiasm generated by our week

together continues to pay dividends as

each of the participants has spread the

word back home.

I am delighted to announce that

our next workshop is scheduled for the

Redemptorist Renewal Center in Tucson, the week of January 11 - 15, 2016. If you,

or someone you know, is an educator,

deacon, or priest with a passion for

astronomy and desire to share that

passion, check out the details on our

Vatican Observatory Foundation web

page. Applications open September 1.

The other project that has me

excited is our “Sacred Space” blog, The

Catholic Astronomer. Check it out,

at www.vofoundation.org/blog You’ll find a

new article every day on topics that range

from “what’s new in the solar system” to

by Br. Guy Consolmagno, S.J.

President ’s Message

reflections of how the astronomy we do

reflects on our faith and our culture.

For example, just recently Dr. Brenda

Frye explained the giant hydrogen halo

discovered around the Andromeda

Galaxy. Bill Higgins wrote about the first

“hard science” fiction novelist: none other

than Galileo’s contemporary, Johannes

Kepler. Bob Trembley has been updating

us on the Dawn mission to Ceres. And

Fr. Kurzynski recently reflected on how

Confirmation preparation at his parish

could be tied to the sense of awe that

fuels our passion for astronomy.

Science is a conversation, not a cold

book of facts. Both the Workshop and

the Blog give our Foundation supporters

– you – the chance to talk to us about

what you find fascinating about the

universe, and what you’d like to hear

from us, as professional astronomers and

people of faith. And more such programs

are in the works. Watch this space!

The other thing about these two

programs is that they started with ideas

from you, our supporters. Fr. James

Kurzynski first suggested the Workshop

in an email that came to us “out of the

blue” about a year ago. Bob Trembley’s

enthusiasm launched the Catholic

Astronomer website, and his technical

skills keep it running.

I am humbled by the contributions

of ideas, prayers, and finances that has

made all of this possible. Thank you all.

And I look forward to seeing what you

will come up with next!

Photo Credit: ESA/Valentini

UPCOMING EVENTSSAVE THE DATE:Annual Seminar – Awards BanquetPhoenix, Arizona – January 23rd, 2016

FAITH AND ASTRONOMY WORKSHOP IITucson, Arizona – January 12th - 15thApply in September at: www.vofoundation.org

MUSECONItasca, IL – August 7,8,9Brother Guy will be the Guest of Honor

SASQUAN 2015 WORLD SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTIONSpokane, WA – August 19-23Br. Guy will present the Sagan Award lecture

FOR UPCOMING EVENTS, ASTRONOMICAL LECTURES AND MORECheck out the Catholic Astronomer Blog Calendar Page at: www.vofoundation.org/blog/calendar

Reaching for the HeavensSpring 2015 Page 3

Education and Public Outreach

Annual Seminar held at Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.

In January BR. GUY opened the 2015 University of

Arizona Lecture Series: “Life in the Universe” with his

presentation of “What Is Life?”

In Charlotte, North Carolina, BR. GUY participated in

the Temple Beth El 2015 Comparative Religion Series:

“Religion and Science: Can They Coexist?”

To a standing room only crowd FR. PAUL GABOR

continued the tradition of Vatican Observatory staff

participation at the University Series lectures during Lent

in Ventura County, CA, presenting “Are We Alone in the Universe? A Vatican Observatory Update”

BR. GUY was honored to present at the inaugural event of the Academy of Catholic Thought and Imagination at Loyola

Marymount University in March. The theme “Science, Religion, and the Art of Storytelling”

Presenters and Esteemed Guests: FR. JOSE GABRIEL FUNES, Director of The Vatican Observatory;

ARCHBISHOP CARLO MARIA VIGANÓ, Apostolic Nuncio; BR. GUY CONSOLMAGNO;

PROFESSOR DUILIA DE MELLO, Institute for Astrophysics and Computational Sciences at CUA; and

MONSIGNOR MARK MOROZOWICH, Acting Provost at CUA.

In San Antonio BR. GUY visited Central Catholic High School, the Oblates School of Theology, and the Scobee Edu-

cation Center Planetarium where he presented “The Adventures of a Vatican Astronomer”. The event at the

planetarium was a special honor for Brother Guy due to the many years DR. JUNE SCOBEE RODGERS dedicated

to the VOF as a member of the Board of Directors.

http://epgapi-tlh.gradimages.com/...864C42C525D0FDA1B9DA135AB626975C0743AA64EF2E3906B452C517FF2000E6A3E9FBBC02C5[2/13/2015 4:56:44 PM]

Photo Credit: Jude Harding

Photo Credit: Joaquin Loustau

Photo Credit: Bob Kelley Photo Credit: Bob Kelley

Photo Credit: Joaquin Loustau

The Vatican Observatory Foundation visit to Chile, 2015by Br. Guy Consolmagno, S.J. From the Catholic Astronomer Blog Posts

In mid April, a group sponsored by

the Vatican Observatory Foundation

went to tour a number of the European

Southern Observatory (ESO) (and

other) astronomical observatories in

northern Chile. The whole trip was

made possible thanks to the wonderful

help of Dr. Fernando Comerón, the ESO

representative in Chile who set up the

whole tour and got us places to stay in

the observatories themselves.

Our guests included Ken and Karen

Miller, longtime Sacred Space Giving

participants from Los Angeles; Conrad

Plimpton, a member of the U of Arizona

Galileo Circle; Gary Gutt, who works at

JPL and is a long-time VOF supporter;

and two veterans from previous Rome

VATICAN OBSERVATORY FOUNDATION

trips, Andrea Dudek and Mary Louise

Jackowicz from Chicago. Also joining

us on the trip was former director of the

MMT (and former VOF board member)

Faith Vilas, and for part of the trip,

Dante Minniti and Joyce Pullen from

ESO.

There were three major observatory

stops along the way. The first was La

Silla, which is located a few hours

outside of the Chilean city of La

Serena, which is also near the American

observatory of Cerro Tololo. Both La

Silla and Cerro Tololo were developed

in the 1960s, about the same time as Kitt

Peak, and they have a very familiar feel

to them... the telescopes are also mostly

from the 1960’s to the 1990s. The site

was chosen to be both clear and dark,

yet still conveniently accessible at that

time. Later telescopes were built in sites

that are even darker and more remote,

as accessibility developed over the past

50 years.

Even though some of them are nearly

50 years old, they’re still heavily used.

The 3.6 meter telescope, for example, is

the home to the HARPS spectrometer

that is used full time to discover and

characterize exoplanets – planets around

other stars, a discovery that was far in

the future when that telescope was first

built.

Here are some photos from our

group, to give you an idea of what those

wonderful telescopes look like.

In the cafeteria of the observatory dorm where we were staying at La Silla, I ran into my friend Colin from the UK, who was using this telescope to observe Kuiper Belt Objects that night.

The next morning, en route from La Silla to Paranal we visited the Magellan Observatory at Las Campanas, which is visible from La Silla. This observatory is sponsored by a number of US institutions including the Carnegie Institute and Harvard, MIT, U of Michigan, and the U of Arizona.

The two Magellan telescopes were built in 2000 and 2002, using 6.5 meter mirrors fabricated at the U of Arizona mirror lab (which our FAW group toured in January). Nearby is the mountaintop where the Giant Magellan Telescope will be built; it will have seven 8.4 meter mirrors in one structure!

These mirrors are all made with the spin-cast technique of Roger Angel at the University of Arizona mirror lab. There was a third mirror of this size made at that time; it is now the mirror in the MMT.

CONRAD, KAREN, and KEN at the 2.2 meter telescope.

The telescope domes at La Silla, as the sun sets

A view of the Magellan twin domes, from the cafeteria where we had lunch

KAREN, KEN, and FERNANDO inspecting the dome of one

of the Magellan telescopes

A few days after we visited La Silla we went to the telescopes that defined astronomy in the 2000’s: the VLT (Very Large Telescope) at Paranal.These telescopes are a couple of hours from Antofagasta, a desolate plain utterly devoid of life. The dryness of the area makes Tucson look like an oasis by comparison. Thus the shock of the astronomer’s hotel... It is built into the side of the mountain; from the road, all you can see is a small dome.

But once you go through the airlock double-doors, you find yourself in a moist rainforest environment!In fact, the setting is so dramatic, it was used in the James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace”...

But the best part was being in the dome of one of the 8.2 meter telescopes as it was being prepared for observing that night.

Our last stop on the Chile trip was San Pedro de Atacama, a hiker’s paradise that now serves as the headquarters for the APEX microwave telescope (a friend of mine was using it while we were there) and the ALMA microwave radio telescope array, located at 16,400 feet (5,000 meters). It’s so high up that you have to be examined by a doctor before they let you visit.

Everyone in our group passed the test... except me. (I was on antibiotics, fighting a sinus infection I’d picked up in Denver.) As a result, I don’t have first-hand descriptions... but these are some of the photos that Katie took and shared with us.

But along with the telescopes, we also got to visit a couple of the remarkable sites near San Pedro... the El Tatio hot springs and geysers (best seen at sunrise, which meant an early start for us) and the “Valley of the Moon”, a remarkable collection of mountains and valleys carved by wind and water.

All I could think of was Ceres. As you may recall the Dawn spacecraft is orbiting Ceres, getting closer and closer to the mysterious white spots seen on its surface. One theory has it that they are patches of ice left by geysers on the surface of Ceres. Well, here are some geysers at 14,000

To the right of this photo is a lush garden surrounding a swimming pool!

The VLT telescopes are too big for mirror covers, so they are tilted to the side when the dome is opened. This panorama gives a sense of the scale

A panoramic view of our group at the Very Large Telescopes

The gang at ALMA… except for me!

The people who made our ALMA trip possible: FERNANDO

COMERÓN and PIERRE COX

The Alma telescopes. Yes, that’s snow.

The Valley of the Moon, covered with salts from the recent floods.

feet in the dry desert of Chile.

But an equally possible theory is that the white spots are salt deposits left behind after the water evaporated into space. And that’s where the “Valley of the Moon” comes in.

As you may have heard, this desert only gets rain about once in a hundred years; but one of those times was just this past spring. And the rocks here are full of salts like gypsum, or even regular rock salt (NaCl as halite). They were the site of salt mines as recently as the 1960s. And with all that rain, a lot of salt got dissolved into the water... and then left behind as the water evaporated. So, for the moment, this valley has a remarkable white patina.

Maybe they should call it the Valley of Ceres?

Reaching for the HeavensSpring 2015 Page 5

During Dr. Sykes presentation most

prominent was a mysterious white spot

and small companion that stood out

against the dark surface of the dwarf

planet. Models of the interior of Ceres

indicated the possibility of an interior

ocean. The white spot might indicate

the existence of cryovolcanism that

brings heavily mineralized liquid water

to the surface. Exposed to the vacuum

of space at Ceres’ distance from the Sun,

this water would rapidly sublime, leaving

February: As Dawn closed in on Ceres, Friends Gathered to Celebrate among the MeteoritesAt the Michael J. Drake Building in Tucson

VATICAN OBSERVATORY FOUNDATION

behind bright residue including salts and

other minerals.

Sykes spoke about the astrobiological

implications of such a water reservoir

existing over the age of the solar system,

suggesting extremophyle life might exist

without exposure to sunlight. This

would be analogous to life in the deep

oceans of the Earth near thermal vents.

Such life might then be transported to

the surface, entrapped in the evaporites

of something like the white spots. The

interior ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa

is another location that life might have

developed, but Ceres has the advantage

of being much easier to get to than

Jupiter (being only a little more than

DR. MARK V. SYKES, CEO and Director of the Planetary Science Institute and Co-Investigator of the NASA Dawn mission, points out details on the first images of Ceres from the Dawn Spacecraft during his presentation at the Circles of Giving Awards Dinner.

half Jupiter’s distance from the Sun) and

Ceres does not have the Europa’s extreme

radiation environment (a consequence of

orbiting within Jupiter’s strong magnetic

fields). So, one could envision a relatively

inexpensive mission, traveling to the

surface of Ceres, scooping up some of

the white material on its surface, looking

at the material under magnification and

asking the question: are there any dead

bugs? - resulting in the most important

discovery in human history.

This is all speculation, but it is a

question that will be on the minds of

investigators as the Dawn spacecraft

continues to spiral closer and closer to

the surface of Ceres.

BR. GUY shows meteorites to DR. BRENDA FRYE and her husband, before the dinner at the Michael J. Drake Building in Tucson. Dr. Frye assists the VOF by posting a fascinating article every week on The Catholic Astronomer Blog.

ALYSE and CARL HERGENROTHER, FR. JEAN-BAPTISTE KIKWAYA, S.J., and FR. PATRICK M. CRINO enjoy the evening. Carl and Fr. Kikwaya have been instrumental in bringing real-life astronomy to high school students.

FR. ARTURO SOSA, S.J., Delegate for the Interprovincial Je-suit Communities in Rome and ROSE CRACCHIOLO COLLINS, Guardian of the Vatican Observatory, enjoy meeting for the first time.

and Annual Seminar will be in Phoenix on Saturday, January 23rd.SAVE THE DATE: 2016 Circle of Giving Awards Dinner

Reaching for the HeavensSpring 2015 Page 7

Under clear skies just north of Tucson,

amid temperatures that felt more like

late spring than winter, I had the

privilege of joining 24 priests and lay

people to participate in the first ever

Faith and Astronomy Workshop, hosted

by the Vatican Observatory Foundation.

This brief, four day workshop was a mix

of lecture, discussion, hands-on science,

and field trips to help parish educators

and pastors learn how to address the

relationship of faith and science with

the people they serve.

The event was led by astronomer

and President of the Vatican Observatory

Foundation, Br. Guy Consolmango, S.J.

Joining Br. Guy were a number of local

scientists and friends of the Foundation

who presented on subjects ranging

from the ancient understanding of the

universe to critiquing the “new atheists.”

The breadth of subjects combined with

daily visits to active and future space

missions provided an eye-opening

look at the current state of astronomy

and the importance of the Vatican

Observatory’s presence in the scientific

community.

One of the memorable themes of the

workshop was given by Vatican scientist

Fr. Paul Gabor, S.J. during his homily

at daily Mass. Fr. Gabor explained

Faith and Astronomy Workshop:Reflections on my week with the Vatican ObservatoryBy Fr. James Kurzynski

that the lesson science teaches us is

that the world is rational and able to

be understood. This intelligibility of

the universe is an invitation from the

world’s Creator. This invitation shows

us that God wants us to understand Him

through studying creation. Therefore,

we do not have a God of deception and

confusion, but rather a God of love who

makes Himself accessible and known

through His creation. This mediation

became the interpretive lens that helped

me unify the entire Workshop and

clearly understand the true relationship

between faith and science: Faith and

science are complementary explorations

of truth and, presuming adherence to

moral laws, cannot be in conflict with

one another since truth cannot contract

truth (CCC 159).

On the final evening of the

Workshop, Br. Guy asked me to preside

and preach the homily for the closing

Mass under the night sky. The reason I

was approached was because of my role

in the development of the conference.

Shortly after ordination, I e-mailed Fr.

George Coyne, Director of the Vatican

Observatory at that time, asking if

the Observatory offered retreats or

conferences on the subject of faith and

science for people who do not work

professionally in science. His polite

response stated that the Observatory

did not have such a program, but that

I should check back in the future. Ten

years rolled by before I did check back.

This time around, I contacted Br. Guy.

Again, I was informed that there wasn’t

such a program, but Br. Guy wanted to

take the idea to the Director, Fr. Jose

Funes, S.J., for consideration. In short,

the idea was embraced and the first ever

Faith and Astronomy Workshop (FAW)

began to take form.

At the conclusion of the Workshop,

it was decided that this event would

happen again with the hope of it

becoming an annual event for the

Vatican Observatory Foundation. The

next Workshop will be held January

11, 2016. For those who are unable to

apply for this conference, but would

still like to explore the question of faith

and science, there is now a blog called

“The Catholic Astronomer” allowing

you access to astronomers who desire

to reach out to the general public to

explore Astronomy and its relationship

with the Catholic faith. (There is a

(continued on page 8)

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monthly donation to have full access

to this blog). I invite anyone interested

to check out this wonderful resource

at http://www.vofoundation.org/blog/.

T he Fa it h a nd Ast ronomy

Workshop was a memorable event

that I will cherish for the rest of my

priesthood. It is consoling to see that,

in light of the advances in science

that loom just around the corner, the

Vatican Observatory is developing new

programs to make the work they do

more accessible to the non-scientist. In

the process, they are helping us to be

more literate about one of the hottest

topics in the Church: the relationship

between faith and science. Please pray

for the ongoing work of the Vatican

Observatory and may their work help

remind us that the Church supports true

science.

(continued from page 7)

Looking for the Green Flash from Paranal, Chile.

INSIDE Astronomical Chile Tour faith and astronomy