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A talk on falling stars, ” Meteorites in the Vatican”

Please join us this June 24, 2023 (Saturday) at 8:30 pm Philippine Standard Time (8:30 am EDT, 12:30 UTC) for an online talk on meteorites by Br. Robert Macke, S.J. , Curator of the Vatican Meteorite Collection.

Biography:

Brother Robert Macke S.J. is a research scientist and curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory. He received a bachelor of physics from MIT in 1996, then studied at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, to receive a Master of Arts in physics in 1999. He taught astronomy for two years at Bowling Green State University in Ohio before entering the Jesuit order in 2001. As a Jesuit brother, he received a Master of Arts in philosophy from St. Louis University in 2006, and after a year teaching astronomy at Rockhurst University began work toward a Ph.D. in physics (planetary science specialty) at the University of Central Florida, which he completed in 2010. From 2011-2013, he studied for a Master of Theological Studies at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, and then joined the staff of the Vatican Observatory in 2013. He became the curator of the Vatican Meteorite Collection in 2013. To date, he has been involved in numerous research collaborations, including membership in the science teams of the Lucy and the OSIRIS-REx space probes, and has applied his research techniques to a large number of moon rocks from the Apollo missions. Outside of research, he makes YouTube videos both for the Vatican Observatory and for his own channel, “Macke MakerSpace.”

Abstract:

The Vatican Observatory is a research institution with a long and proud tradition in the astronomical sciences. The work of the observatory, done by Jesuit scientists, serves as a sign to the world of the compatibility of faith and science as well as the Catholic Church’s support of science. In addition to traditional astronomy, the Jesuits of the observatory also study theoretical physics, planetary science, and laboratory work with meteorites. The Vatican collection of over 1,200 meteorite specimens is housed at the Vatican Observatory. Research with the meteorites focuses primarily on physical properties: density, porosity, magnetic susceptibility, and thermal properties. These measurements are not limited to the Vatican collection; through international collaborations, we also study other collections. I will also speak a little bit about the application of my work to the OSIRIS-REx space mission and the specimens from the asteroid Bennu that it is delivering to the Earth.

“A Glimpse of Galaxies at the Dawn of the Universe”
by Debra M. Elmegreen, Ph.D. (President, International Astronomical Union)
May 20, 2023 (Saturday), 8:30 p.m. Philippine Standard Time (8:30 a.m. EDT)

Our home planet Earth resides in a spiral galaxy which is the Milky Way. Have you ever wondered what galaxies are, their structure, and how they are formed in the Universe? Please join us this May 20, 2023 (Saturday) at 8:30 p.m. Philippine Standard Time (8:30 a.m. EDT) for an online talk on ““A Glimpse of Galaxies at the Dawn of the Universe”, by no other than Dr. Debra M. Elmegreen, the current President of the. International Astronomical Union. Dr. Elmegreen’s talk will explore the composition and structure of galaxies across cosmic time, probing the evolution of galaxies as they grow and interact with one another.

Dr. Debra M. Elmegreen was the Professor of Astronomy on the Maria Mitchell Chair at Vassar College from 1994 to 2022, after joining the faculty in 1985. She received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University (the first female to major in astrophysics) and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Harvard University and was a Carnegie Observatories Postdoctoral Fellow (the firs Her research focuses on the structure and evolution of galaxies at optical, infrared and radio wavelengths. She enjoys observing with the Hubble Space Telescope and now, with the James Webb Space Telescope. Dr. Elmegreen is President of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) — the first U.S. female to hold this position in its 103-year history — and Past President of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).

ALPer Raymund Sarmiento is this year’s Father Victor L. Badillo Astronomy Service Awardee for 2023 for his “For his innovative development of EQMOD, an open source telescope mount control software, which greatly aided astronomers worldwide.”

Raymund is the Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of GMA New Media, the technology arm of GMA Network.

Serving as CTO of GMA New Media for the past 20 years, he is the co-inventor of some of the R&D projects for the organization, with patents obtained and applied locally and abroad.

He has extensive experience in AI and robotics, recently creating from scratch a Rubiks Cube Solver Robot.

An amateur astronomer as well as member of ALP since 2004,  he also developed a Telescope Observatory / Automation algorithm called EQMOD, which he launched as an open source project in 2006. It remains active to this day.

Impact! When a comet collided with Jupiter

The Astronomical League of the Philippines welcomes the New Year with a fascinating online talk revisiting the first observed impact of a comet with the planet Jupiter.

Join us this coming Sunday, January 22, 2023 at 10:30 AM Philippine Standard Time (02:30 UTC, 9:30 PM EST January 21) with David Levy, the co-discoverer of of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, as he talks about comets and the story of comet SL9s historic spectacular collision with the planet Jupiter 30 years ago.

David Howard Levy is a Canadian amateur astronomer and science writer based in Vail, Arizona. To date, he has discovered 23 comets and 61 minor planets, and has written 34 books, mostly about astronomy.

Abstract: 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of the discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. The comet was discovered by the team of Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy on March 24, 1993, using an 18-inch Schmidt camera at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California. Fragments of SL-9 crashed into Jupiter during the summer of 1994, producing some of the largest impacts ever observed in our solar system. David will talk about how they discovered the comet and the danger of such objects colliding with Earth in the near future.

What was the Star of Bethlehem?

This was the celestial phenomemon that guided the three Wise Men to the birthplace of the infant Jesus Christ. Was it a miracle? A fable? Or scientific reality? Jesuit professional astronomer Father Chris Corbally will try to shed some light on this gospel mystery from the perspective of modern astronomy as well as from exploring ancient wisdom.

Join us this December 17, 2022 for a free online talk by Fr. Chris Corbally, S.J., “What was the Star of Betehem?”, 8:30 PM Philippine Standard Time (7:30 AM EST, 12:30 UTC).

Fr. Christopher J. Corbally, S.J., is a Jesuit priest and astronomer with the Vatican Observatory Research Group in Tucson, Arizona. He is also an Adjunct Associate Astronomer at the University of Arizona’s Department of Astronomy. Father Corbally principally uses spectroscopy to investigate the evolution of stars, and he is co-author of the comprehensive volume, Stellar Spectral Classification. He was the Project Scientist for the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope on Mount Graham, Arizona, and served as President of the International Astronomical Union’s Division IV (Stars) from 2009 to 2012. Father Corbally was ordained in the Society of Jesus in 1976 and earned a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Toronto in 1983. In 2020, the International Astronomical Union recognized his contributions to astronomy by naming asteroid 119248 Corbally.