{"id":21090,"date":"2021-03-17T17:19:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T17:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=21090&post_type=story"},"modified":"2025-03-17T14:11:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T14:11:52","slug":"the-popes-meteor-man","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/the-popes-meteor-man\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pope’s Meteor Man"},"content":{"rendered":"
Spring 2021<\/em> |\u00a0By Jenna Marina Lee<\/em><\/p>\n Shortly after touchdown, the pope transmitted a blessing to the American astronauts: \u201cHonor, greetings and blessings to you, conquerors of the moon, pale lamp of our nights and our dreams! Bring to her, with your living presence, the voice of the spirit, a hymn to God, our Creator and our Father. We are close to you, with our good wishes and with our prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n The moon landing epitomized the limitless potential of mankind, inspired our insatiable pursuit of knowledge, and furthered our awe and wonder with the universe. And in some ways, the moon landing was like coming home.<\/p>\n For the moon, the sun, the Earth, even humans \u2014 we are all connected by the very thing that made us: stardust.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a tendency for us to see the mundane \u2014 which is literally the stuff of the Earth \u2014 and then there\u2019s the stuff out there in space<\/a>,\u201d says Brother Robert Macke \u201910PhD<\/b>, a 166su physics<\/a> alum who serves as the curator of the Vatican\u2019s meteorite collection. \u201cBut the stuff out there and the mundane are really connected. We are part of the same universe. That\u2019s one reason to understand and learn about it. It\u2019s not just out there. It\u2019s here [within us] too.\u201d<\/p>\n While the general public may be surprised to learn the Vatican has an observatory, secular astronomers and scientists are very much aware of Catholics\u2019 contributions to the field.<\/p>\n More than 30 craters on the moon and several asteroids are named after Jesuit scientists. The Gregorian calendar \u2014 which is nearly universal today \u2014 was developed by Jesuit priest Christopher Clavius. The originator of the Big Bang theory, Monsignor Georges Lema\u00eetre, was a priest as well.<\/p>\n \u201cThe origin of the universe is still shrouded in mystery, and the Vatican Observatory is a world-class operation employing some of the best people in the world who try to deal with these questions on a daily basis in a scientific way,\u201d says Dan Britt, Pegasus Professor of astronomy<\/a> and planetary sciences<\/a>. \u201cThe better you understand reality, the better you can deal with the world and the universe \u2014 and the better you know your limitations but also your possibilities. What the scientists at the Vatican Observatory are interested in doing is increasing the human race\u2019s possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n And yet, it isn\u2019t just science alone that contributes to that quest. Inherent within scientific research and discovery are elements of awe and wonder; elements that are also inherent within faith and our connection to the universe.<\/p>\n Every phenomenon in the world can be subjected to a slew of scientific and rigorous questions that result in a pretty complete answer rooted in fact and reason. But those conclusions still do not always give us the full picture, says Bruce Janz, a 166su philosophy<\/a> professor with a background in religious studies<\/a>. \u201cYou can know everything about childbirth in terms of the biology and medical practice, and that still doesn\u2019t explain the wonder of it all,\u201d Janz says. \u201cIt is possible to assign the causal questions to science and the questions of meaning to other domains. Philosopher Immanuel Kant tried to do something like that \u2014 he made a distinction between questions we can know scientifically, like the Earth revolving around the sun, and questions we can\u2019t know scientifically but we can still think about, like what makes art beautiful? In other words, while scientific reason is crucial for everything, it might not be sufficient to reflect all human experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Astronauts have been known to experience this dichotomy in space. It\u2019s referred to as the overview effect. Through personal journal entries and interviews, astronauts of various nationalities and religious backgrounds have described the astonishment felt while gazing upon the Earth from above.<\/p>\n [callout background=”#383838″ content_align=”center” affix=”false” css_class=””]<\/p>\n [blockquote source=”Dan Britt, UCF Pegasus Professor” cite=”” color=”#D4A34E” css_class=””]\u201cThe better you understand reality, the better you can deal with the world and the universe \u2014 and the better you know your limitations but also your possibilities.\u201d[\/blockquote]<\/p>\n [\/callout]<\/p>\n Inspired by this concept, Janz and a team of 166su researchers conducted a two-year study in 2011 to better understand the awe and wonder astronauts experienced.<\/p>\n
A<\/span>s Neil Armstrong and Edwin \u201cBuzz\u201d Aldrin landed on the moon July 20, 1969, Pope Paul VI watched the historic moment from the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo near Rome.<\/p>\n
B<\/span>efore COVID, the question I got most often from people when they learned I worked at the Vatican was, \u2018When can I visit?\u2019 \u201d Macke says with a laugh from his office at the observatory, located one floor below his residence.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n