Catholic astronomers: Newly discovered planet a testament to Earth’s ‘startling uniqueness’

WHY DO FLAT EARTHERS ALWAYS LEAVE THE VATICAN OUT OF THEIR CONSPIRACY THEORY? A potentially habitable “Earth-sized” planet has been discovered, NASA announced last week. Catholic scientists from the Vatican Observatory and Benedictine College hailed the discovery of the planet, named TOI 700 e, as “exciting” and a testament “to the marvels of God’s creation.” The scientists noted, however, that the newly discovered planet is not another Earth, which remains the only planet where life is known to exist. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253397/catholic-astronomers-newly-discovered-planet-a-testament-to-earth-s-startling-uniqueness The Pope's Astronomer: Meet Br. Guy Consolmagno Br. Guy Consolmagno has an incredible job. He is the Pope's astronomer at the Vatican Observatory. Most people do not even know that the Vatican has an official astronomical observatory with telescopes in Italy and the USA. The Vatican and astronomy have a long history dating all the way back to 1582 and the Gregorian reform of the calendar. The observatory also has one of the major collections of meteorites in the world, with over 1100 pieces from the depths of space. EWTN's Colm Flynn visits the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo in Italy to meet Br. Guy Consolmagno and find out more about this hidden part of the Vatican. https://youtu.be/o3eqYbKVYC0 Director of Vatican Observatory to talk at Hampstead church Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ, director of the Vatican Observatory, will be at St Mary's Church, in Holly Walk, on Sunday (February 12) at 4pm. In the free talk, The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Vatican, Br Guy is set to explore the relationship between science and religion. The Jesuit priest is an American research astronomer with a PhD in planetary science, a physicist, author and also president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. https://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/23307119.director-vatican-observatory-talk-hampstead-church/ Only Filmed Interview With "Father Of Big Bang" Theory Rediscovered After 60 Years It's the only known filmed interview with Georges Lemaître, the physicist and Catholic priest who prosed the Big Bang theory, in existence. https://www.iflscience.com/lost-interview-with-creator-of-big-bang-theory-rediscovered-after-six-decades-67371 The Vatican Observatory is one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world. Though we can trace our roots back to the reform of the calendar by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, the modern version of the Observatory was established by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 “so that everyone might see clearly that the Church and her Pastors are not opposed to true and solid science, whether human or divine, but that they embrace it, encourage it, and promote it with the fullest possible devotion.” Our headquarters are located at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome. We also have a dependent research center, the Vatican Observatory Research Group, is hosted by Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. This group operates the 1.8m Alice P. Lennon Telescope with its Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility, known together as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), located at the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO )in southeastern Arizona. Our international staff include a dozen research astronomers (mostly Jesuit priests, but also including two Jesuit brothers and one diocesan priest) plus a number of support staff, emeritus staff, and adjunct scholars. We come from many different nations and cultures, representing nearly every continent. https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/ The observatory is the only Vatican institution that does scientific research, and Brother Consolmagno, a former physics professor and later-in-life Jesuit, is the public face of an institution whose work “is to show the world that the church supports science.” https://youtu.be/fYVZjz63pPY The Vatican's Space Observatory Wants To See Stars And Faith Align CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — At a time of growing diffidence toward some new scientific discoveries, the one and only Vatican institution that does scientific research recently launched a campaign to promote dialogue between faith and science. It's the Vatican Observatory, located on the grounds of the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, a medieval town in Alban Hills 15 miles southeast of Rome. The director, Brother Guy Consolmagno, is giving this reporter a guided tour of the grounds. We drive along a cypress-lined road, admiring majestic gardens and olive groves nestled near the remains of a palace of the Roman Emperor Domitian, before reaching a field with farmworkers and animals. "This is the end that has the papal farm, so you can see the cows the papal milk comes from," Consolmagno says as he points out the working farm that provides the pope at the Vatican with vegetable and dairy products. (Pope Francis, known for his frugality and habit of not taking vacations, decided not to use the papal summer villa, which he considers too luxurious. But he ordered the estate become a museum open to the public.) https://www.npr.org/2021/06/06/1003231191/the-vaticans-space-observatory-wants-to-see-stars-and-faith-align