Join us for the next Full Moon-th Meetup where we’ll chat with Father Alessandro Omizzolo. We’ll also have the latest news of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope*.
Just for our Sacred Space Astronomy members: on the next Full Moon, December 19th, we’ll be holding our regular on-line meetup where you get to chat with each other, and astronomers and scientists from the Vatican Observatory! (OK, so when the Full Moon actually occurs it’ll be the evening of December 18th in Tucson, but that day conflicts with a meeting of the Foundation board of trustees; and it actually is the morning December 19th in Rome at that time.)
Fr. Omizzolo has two wildly different astronomical stories to tell. One is about “Jellyfish Galaxies”. Working with a group called GASP group (GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies), he is trying to understand how material get stripped from some galaxies, leaving trails of material that makes them look like jellyfish. How does this affect star formation in the material that galaxies lose as a result of their motion in the cluster? How does the position of galaxies inside the cluster affect the morphology of jellyfish galaxies?
But his interest in analyzing astronomical images has also gotten him involved in the incredible project of scanning thousands of photographic plates, dating back to 1891, taken by the telescopes at the Vatican. These data are being put online so that astronomers around the world can compare what a given star field looked like a hundred years ago compared to today. The implications range from refining killer asteroid orbits, to understanding variable stars.
Read Fr. Omizzolo’s full bio HERE.
When? Sunday, December 19th: Rain or shine
What time? These meetups will happen around lunch time in North America: in particular, 10:00 am Tucson time, which is 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
How do you access the Zoom link? Join Sacred Space Astronomy and you’ll get an email with the full link!
*The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope consists of the Alice P. Lennon Telescope, and the Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility.
