The Vatican Observatory Podcast (Vatican Observatory)
Explore every episode of The Vatican Observatory Podcast
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08 Mar 2022 | On a Spiral Path to the Milky Way | 00:31:36 | |
When she was a young girl growing up in southern Chile, Gabriela Navarro had many dreams… from being a volleyball player to being an astronaut. | |||
| 20 Apr 2022 | Ambassador to the Universe | 00:36:22 | |
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 the story of our scientific society. | |||
| 01 Jul 2022 | The Stuff of Stars | 00:32:54 | |
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 Washington University in St. Louis to moon rocks at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Guests: Vatican Observatory website: https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/ | |||
| 24 Aug 2022 | From Sparkling Water to Dark Matter | 00:38:46 | |
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... Vatican Observatory website: https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/ | |||
| 05 Oct 2022 | Deep Roots | 00:37:34 | |
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... | |||
| 25 Oct 2022 | From Voyager to Webb: Heidi Hammel and the Ice Giants | 00:47:39 | |
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 crucial to interpreting the Voyager spacecraft flyby images, and she now helps direct planetary observations with the Webb Space Telescope. Guests: | |||
| 02 Jan 2023 | Sketcher of the Skies | 00:40:04 | |
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 Kelleghan is an astronomical artist, living in western Ireland, under incredibly dark skies. With an eye to the telescope, she sketches the beauty of the cosmos, and through her outreach, she teaches others how to do the same. | |||
| 19 May 2023 | Roundtable with Vatican Observatory Staff | 00:37:26 | |
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. | |||
| 10 Jul 2023 | My Time at the Vatican Observatory Summer School | 00:39:24 | |
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! | |||
| 19 Oct 2023 | From Humble Beginnings | 00:39:49 | |
Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Charles F. Bolden Jr. during the 30th anniversary celebration of 'first light' into the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope. | |||
| 09 Feb 2024 | Man on a Mission (or two) | 00:30:23 | |
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. | |||
| 17 Jun 2024 | Steeped in Science | 00:47:14 | |
Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Dr. Michelle Francl about her book Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea, which explores the chemistry behind different styles of tea. The book caused quite a stir with various international news agencies - and a virtual firestorm in Britain. | |||
| 28 Mar 2025 | An Anthropologist at the Vatican Observatory | 00:32:11 | |
Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Dr. Deana L. Weibel - a cultural anthropologist whose work focuses primarily on religion, especially the topics of pilgrimage, sacred space, the mutual influence of scientific and religious ideas on each other, and religion and space exploration. She spoke to us on those topics… and science fiction movies, as well! She spent a month in 2019 at the Vatican Observatory, studying "the Pope's Astronomers;" from mid-March to mid-April 2019, where she conducted ethnographic research including interviews, attended daily activities and events, and got to know the astronomers and staff. | |||
| 18 Dec 2020 | Death by Meteorite: What are the chances? | 00:21:53 | |
In this inaugural episode, world-renowned Vatican astronomer Br. Guy Consalmagno, SJ sits down with Dr. Larry Lebofsky, a planetary astronomer specializing in small solar system bodies, to discuss the chances a meteorite will end life on Earth, how to stop it, and whether or not we’d be safer on Mars. | |||
| 17 Dec 2020 | Science Fiction: What it gets right and wrong | 00:18:30 | |
Where do you draw the line between space fact and space fiction? In this episode, Br. Guy and Dr. Larry Lebofsky of the Planetary Science Institute examine what the genre gets right and how science fiction has influenced real-life space programs. | |||
| 22 Jan 2021 | Living on the Moon: Why and how? | 00:29:09 | |
U.S. astronaut Nicole Stott and her husband Christopher Stott of the International Institute of Space Commerce explore with Br. Guy what living on (or in) the Moon would look like. Where’s the best spot for a Moon base? And when we can expect Moon tourism to start? | |||
| 04 Feb 2021 | The Vatican’s Interest in Space Exploration? | 00:24:33 | |
Why is the Vatican interested in space and how is it actively contributing to space exploration? In this podcast, Br. Guy explains some of the biggest moments in the Observatory’s history in space and talks about the space missions where the VO is making a contribution. He is joined by Dr. Daniel Britt, the Pegasus Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences at University of Central Florida, and Br. Bob Macke, curator of the Vatican Observatory’s meteorite collection. | |||
| 03 Jun 2021 | Galileo: The Real Story | 00:24:02 | |
Galileo's championing of Copernican heliocentrism led to two encounters with the Church: an informal meeting with Cardinal Bellarmine in 1616 and a formal trial in 1633. It’s a muddled piece of history which has caused many people to falsely stake the claim that the Church is an enemy of science. In this episode, Br. Guy and Chris Graney discuss the real story of Galileo’s relationship with the Church. Guests: | |||
| 07 Jun 2021 | Galileo: The Real Story (Part 2) | 00:20:43 | |
Galileo was not only a great scientist, but a great philosopher of science. And yet, he was a man who sometimes contradicted his own philosophy. In this episode, Br. Guy and Chris Graney continue their discussion of the real story of Galileo and how science and history textbooks alike often get it wrong. Guests:
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| 05 Jul 2021 | On the Fly - How to drive a spacecraft | 00:28:02 | |
How does a spacecraft get designed and built? How do you maneuver a spacecraft to make sure it gets where it’s going? What’s it mean to work on “Mars time”? In this episode, Steve Collins, Senior Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), joins Bob Trembley and Br. Guy Consolmagno to answer these questions and more about what it takes to create a spacecraft that can go where humans can’t. Guests:
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| 15 Jul 2021 | Black Holes | 00:30:57 | |
On this episode of the Vatican Observatory Podcast, a pioneer in black hole imaging, Prof. Dr. Heino Falcke joins Br. Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory, and host Bob Trembley for a conversation to discuss his new book Light in the Darkness: Black Holes, the Universe, and Us, his trailblazing work on black hole imaging, and the intersection of faith and science. Dr. Falcke is a professor of radio astronomy and astroparticle physics at the Radboud University Nijmegen, as well as the winner of the 2011 Spinoza Prize. Famously, he is known as the originator of the concept of the 'black hole shadow'. Guests:
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| 28 Jul 2021 | Space and the Middle-Schooler | 00:31:20 | |
What do kids today think about astronomy and space travel? And how do they think differently about these topics compared to kids 40 years ago? In this episode of the Vatican Observatory podcast, longtime middle school astronomy teacher Constance Martin-Trembley joins Br. Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory, and host Bob Trembley to discuss the changing landscape of astronomy youth education. Guests:
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| 30 Jul 2021 | How to Make an Impact: From Crater Science to Public Outreach | 00:32:57 | |
Prof. Dr. Christian Koeberl has had a fascinating career in planetary sciences. An expert in how planetary impacts make craters, he served for ten years as the director of the Natural History Museum of Vienna, one of the most important natural history museums in Europe.
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| 07 Dec 2021 | A Taste for Heavy Water | 00:32:45 | |
Dr. Michelle Francl puts her own twist on combinations that most people might think are impossible. In this podcast she tells Br Guy Consolmagno about how the Sisters of Loreto in the small town where she grew up encouraged a love of science fiction that eventually led to her to a PhD with Nobel Laureate F. Sherwood Roland; about heavy-duty computational quantum chemistry and the taste of heavy water; about her articles for Nature Chemistry and for the Liturgical Press.
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| 22 Jan 2022 | The Chaotic Path of a Climate Modeler | 00:27:08 | |
How does a young Indonesian boy from a half Muslim, half Christian family wind up as a Jesuit scientist-priest in Arizona, modeling the tropical climates of northern Mexico and Saudi Arabia, while celebrating Mass for Native Americans… and keeping his fellow Jesuits well fed with his cooking skills? Meet Fr. Christoforus Bayu Risanto! Dr. Bayu defended his doctorate in meteorology at the University of Arizona last fall, where he's now continuing his research as a postdoctoral fellow.
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