Brother Astronomer: Adventures of a Vatican Scientist

Brother Guy Consolmagno is an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory. He obtained his Ph.D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona and went on to teach at MIT until 1983, when he joined the Peace Corps. After two years of teaching university and high-school physics in Kenya, he returned to the U.S. He took vows as a Jesuit brother in 1991, and since then has studied philosophy and theology at Loyola University, Chicago, and physics at the University of Chicago. He has also spent several terms as a visiting scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center and as a visiting professor at Loyola College, Baltimore, and Loyola University, Chicago. His area of expertise is in the study of small solar-system objects, such as moons, asteroids, and meteors. At the Vatican, he serves as curator of one of the largest meteorite collections in the world. Consolmagno's writing has appeared in numerous journals and magazines including Sky & Telescope, Leonardo Jesuits in Science, Ad Astra.

Part One: Upon These Rocks. Aliens at the Vatican. The Case of the Fiery Fingers. The Vindication of Mars. The Confession of a Vatican Scientist. Percursors of Evil. The Rift of Popular Culture. Finding God in Creation. Part Three: Once in a Lifetime. Holes in the Sand. Call and Response. Justice in the Oceans of Europa. Would You Baptize an Extraterrestial? Part Four: Wide Wild Whiteness. Well Met at Ansmet. Erebus and Terror. Soul on Ice. The Easter Egg Hunt. Walking in Heaven. We've Got Company. Acquainted with All My Ways. Hunting the White Elephant. Northward HO! The Wagons. Afterword: About This Book.