Guy consolmagno, chief astronomer of the Vatican says on the subject of balance between the Church and the cosmos. This graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of technology talks about how he began to study the stars for the Catholic Church.
Brother guy consolmagno (Guy Consolmagno) is the Director of the Vatican Observatory and President of the Foundation of the Observatory of the Vatican. He grew up in Detroit, Michigan, studied Earth science and planets at the Massachusetts Institute of technology, where he received a bachelor’s degree and master’s degrees, and University of Arizona he was awarded a doctorate. During a break in his training he spent two years teaching astronomy in Nairobi in collaboration with the peace Corps (Peace Corps). Because Consolmagno studied at a Jesuit school, he several times in the course of his career considered the possibility to join a Church, and finally joined it in 1989. Two years later he was sent to serve in the Observatory of the Vatican, where since then and works.
Research, Consolmagno always focused on the smallest bodies in our solar system, and his work in the Vatican allowed him to make significant contributions in this area in recent decades. 2014, American astronomical society awarded him the medal of Carl Sagan (Carl Sagan) for the outstanding job of explaining planetary science to the wider public. You can get acquainted with the thoughts Consolmagno about his work and life in the Laboratory of the Vatican, if you read his blog, his posts on Twitter, and watch his performances on the Fund’s activities Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED).
I recently had a conversation with brother guy about his life in science and in the Church, and that he was able to learn, moving between these two instances.
Smithsonian: How did your interest in science? Or, this interest is constantly present?
Guy consolmagno: I belong to the generation born in the period of rapid boom in fertility. I went to kindergarten, when a satellite was launched, and I was in high school, when we landed on the moon. We just grew up together with all of this. You need to be there to understand how intense the attention was focused on the science and on the pupils. In addition, I received considerable support from my parents, especially my dad. I have a very close relationship with him. I’m the youngest of three brothers, and he is now 98 years old, and the health he does not complain. He soon began to use a computer, and therefore, we have the opportunity to communicate via Skype or Facetime.
— As for planetary Sciences? Why did you choose this area?
— I wanted to learn everything. I was a real nerd. My father worked as a journalist, and at some point he became the employee of Department of public relations at Chrysler in Detroit. So I became interested in journalism. I have had an interest in law, like my grandfather. I was interested in everything. As a result, I spent the first year at Boston College (Boston College), studying history as a main subject, and at this time I began to ask myself question about what I will do with my life. My best school friend was studying at that time at mit, I went to see him at the end of each week, and it was like heaven and earth. Mit is the place where it was interesting to be there was better than at Boston College, and so I decided to transfer.
When it is time to choose the main discipline, I saw the subject entitled “the Science of the Earth and planets” and put a tick there, thinking that this is astronomy. And then I realized that its the main subject I chose Geology! But once I learned a few things about meteorites is that there are stones that fall from the sky and which can, actually, hold it in your hands — I had an interest. Ago I never looked back.
— You have made the decision to join the Jesuit Order?
Partially my decision to move to mit was due to deciding not to become at that point in my life Jesuit priest. I wanted to leave Boston College, but joining the Jesuits as a way to get out of the dorms for freshmen and sophomores was not a good plan. I decided that the time has not come yet.
Doctoral program in planetary science at the University of Arizona as time only began at the moment when I in 1975 he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of technology. I immediately jumped at the opportunity and met great people. I have had various UPS and downs and adventures, moving forward and backward, and so continued until, until I was 30 years old at this point, I have five years doing research after defending his thesis, and I had a feeling that I’ll never get a job. At that moment, that prospect is no pleasure to me does not deliver. I was lying in bed and asked myself: Why am I doing astronomy when people are starving in the world? Then I decided to quit and joined the peace Corps (Peace Corps).
So, I began to work in the peace Corps, and people in Kenya asked me, “are You astronomer? Tell us something about astronomy! You can see in your telescope?” They looked at the rings of Saturn and were delighted. “Wow!” And, of course, they were delighted. All are delighted. “Awesome!” Here it means to be a human being.
And in this moment I remembered what I was taught by the Jesuits. “Not by bread alone”. Right? You must have something else that you can feed. If you’re a human being, then you must have a reason why you eat bread. In your life has to have meaning, and part of that meaning should be the development of a sense of reverence, expectation of a miracle, the feelings of joy from what you see on the sky. All this re-ignited my love of astronomy.
I remembered that I wanted to join the Jesuits when I was 18 years old. “OK, I will not be a priest. But what I was going to do?” Such were my thoughts, but I knew that the Jesuits have brothers. If I’m a brother, I can be a Professor, I could teach astronomy at the Jesuit school. I was determined to become a teacher, but instead I received a letter from Rome in which it was said that I was sent to work in the Observatory of the Vatican. It said that I can do anything in science. In addition, the letter stated that they have a collection of meteorites, but no curator for her.
— How the Vatican managed to gather such an amazing collection of meteorites?
— In France in the nineteenth century, there was a gentleman and scholar Marquis de Mauroy (Marquis de Mauroy). He was a big collector. He also actively supported the Vatican, and believed that the Vatican should be the natural history Museum together with the Museum of art, but places for them was not. All this happened at the turn of the century. He donated some items from her collection, and they eventually ended up in the Observatory.
Then, in 1930, an agreement was signed between the Vatican and Rome on the basis of which was handed over all that territory where we are now — Castle Gandolfo, located about 50 kilometers from Rome — today this is the summer residence of the Pope. The Observatory also moved here because no one wanted to live here in the winter, except for astronomers, who said: “it is good and dark, we agree!” The wife of the Marquis of this (by that time she was already a widow) still owned all the stones from the collection. I think she wanted to liberate them from the basement, and so donated all of the meteorites, as well as thousands of minerals.
— How you spend your time, performing the duties of astronomer of the Vatican?
It is great to be an astronomer. I don’t need to write any suggestions. I don’t need to show concern and say, “I should get results in three years in order to Finance my work was continued.” I don’t have to worry about the timing of tenure. I love that all the instructions that I received upon arrival to the Observatory, has been reduced to the following phrase: “Do good science”.
Eventually we became engaged, mostly long-term projects, which, first, are not linked to duration of stay in office, because they continue too long. And, secondly, such work will not make anyone famous, because it’s not the cutting edge of science. Here there are the most modern tools, facing billions of dollars, but this work provides tremendous support to the rest of the scientists working in this field. When I saw the meteorites, I asked myself: “What can I do with this little collection?”
At that time no one studied the density of meteorites. No one measured their heat capacity. No one measured their thermal conductivity, or some other physical quality. Meteorites are different from rocks. They have a different structure. And so we worked on changing all these settings, our exhibits. We have been doing this work for over 20 years, and our data now used by all. And suddenly you realize that the figures that we received, can be used to formulate deep questions about the formation of planets and especially the solar system.
— When you have just started to work in the Observatory of the Vatican, if you’ve noticed any weird looks or skepticism by your colleagues who are not Jesuits.
— In fact, constantly repeated one and the same reaction. I asked: “You go to Church? And I, too. Don’t tell anyone”, because they think only they do it. Actually, I can give you a list of very famous people in this field who have told me about their religion. In my opinion, the proportion of people in my area who attend the Church conform to the culture that in which they were formed.
My friend was in graduate school at Cornell University and did his doctoral thesis when Carl Sagan was a student, and she cites are his words: “an Atheist is a man who knows more than I do.” I have talked to many people, and I can say the following: the fact that people do not go to Church, does not mean that he has no interest in higher matters, not admires them or does not feel attraction to him. But one thing is the fact that a person attends Church does not mean that the answers to all the questions received that he no longer asks questions, shows concern and, to some extent, interest. “Yes, but…” Because we are human beings, and I wouldn’t want to be anything else.
Ultimately, we are talking not only about science but also about why we do science. You can return to the question that I asked when I was 30 years old: why are we doing this? We should do it for something greater than ourselves, for something greater than our career or something else, it just becomes a normal job.
— What, in your opinion, is a possible way to ensure that people representing the extreme segments of these two groups, began between a productive dialogue?
— I believe that we should not be afraid to speak with your friends about who you are. I’m not going to engage in proselytism, because it never works, but I recommend people to start with in order to imagine the following situation: you are a scientist or engineer, attend Church, and you talk to people in your Church in order for them not to get the wrong idea about what it means to be a scientist. Below their picture of the scientist is not restricted to the example of Neil Tyson (Neil Tyson), but that was there and Joe Schwartz (Joe Schwartz), who every Sunday sits beside them in the pews. This is a personal touch.
It also means that people in their churches, and people like me should be visible — you need people to see: we love this activity and it’s real science. The big Bang is not an atheistic conspiracy. The big Bang was invented by a Catholic priest. I just wanted to remind people about it!
Many great heroes of science were deeply religious people. Different faiths and not just one faith. James Clerk Maxwell was my hero, and he was a devout member of the Anglican Church. Who knew? Did not mention it, because there was no need to talk about it. The reason why the Vatican has an Observatory, is as follows: to show that the Church supports science.
We also have a Fund that holds a lot of social work plan. One of the programs we launched is called “Seminar on astronomy and faith”. The priests and deacons and other people involved in education in parishes, come to Tucson for a week, they meet with astronomers and lead the conversation behind the scenes. These people then return to their congregations and talk about it. The hope is that through these parishes the people will know that astronomy is an amazing thing. The Vatican supports it. No, we don’t have to oppose science in order to be good Christians. We hope for a ripple effect. View.
