The Vatican Observatory Podcast

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Br. Bob Macke about being a team member of two asteroid missions: the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, and the Lucy mission to the Trojan asteroids. Hosts:Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director of Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.Bob Trembley: Factotum for the Vatican Observatory Foundation.Guest:Br. Bob Mack

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Charles F. Bolden Jr. during the 30th anniversary celebration of 'first light' into the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope.Hosts:Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director of Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.Bob Trembley: Factotum for the Vatican Observatory Foundation.Guest:Charles F. Bolden Jr.: Marine Corps

Matthew Pinson SJ is a young Jesuit scientist from Australia. He was one of the students at the 2023 Vatican Observatory Summer School held in Rome during June. Hear what it was like to be a student at the school, and how Matthew’s journey took him from a farm in Australia to a doctorate at MIT, then the Jesuits, and finally to the Vatican!Hosts:Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director o

This podcast was taken from the Full Moon Meetup on Friday, January 6, 2023. To begin the year, we had a roundtable discussion with several members of the Vatican Observatory staff. We covered everything from Befana, the Italian Epiphany witch, to the 30th anniversary of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), and the year ahead.Hosts:Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ: Director of V

What spurs an artist to start sketching celestial objects as they look in her small telescope? What thrills her the most? Is it seeing the fine details of nebulae through large telescopes? Sketching the Moon's slowly changing terminator and Sun's prominences? Working with children - helping them understand the night sky, and awakening their curiosity in science? Deirdre K

So, how many people do you know who have had a children’s book written about them? Dr. Heidi Hammel gained international fame in 1994 by leading the Hubble Space Telescope Team that imaged Jupiter during the impacts of Comet Shoemaker Levy 9, but in fact her main research has focused on the “ice giant” planets, Uranus and Neptune. Her ground-based telescope observations were

Have you ever met one of those people who just seems to know everyone? Our guest, Katie Steinke is one of those people. Katie and her family have been involved with Specola astronomers for decades, and from those deep roots grew the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope. Hear Katie's story...Guests:Katie Steinke - former development director of the Vatican Observatory Foundati

The most famous product of San Pellegrino, Italy, is its sparkling water. But from this same village in the north of Italy has come a PhD scientist working on detecting the most elusive ingredients of the universe… and hoping for a chance to fly, herself, in space. Hear Dr. Maria Elena Monzani’s story...Guests: - Dr. Maria Elena Monzani, a Lead Scientist at the SLAC National Ac

Brother Bob Macke SJ is the curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory, and during his research measuring meteorite physical properties he has probably handled as many rocks from outer space as anyone alive today. Other astronomers may claim to study stars and planets, but mostly all they touch are photons; Bob has handled actual stuff from space, from stellar dust at Washing

Meet Bill Higgins. By day, he's one of the scientists who keeps the Fermilab National Accelerator running safe, as it pummels the smallest particles in the universe. But in his free time he’s a techie storyteller of big things and big ideas: a NASA Solar System Ambassador, a researcher of esoteric technology from rocket belts to Jacquard looms, and an explorer of how we tell