Join us on Saturday January 3rd for our next Full Moon-th On-line Meetup! Our guest will be Br. Bob Macke, SJ, curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory, and member of the mission teams for the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, and the Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids.
Click here to add this event to your calendar
Our tradition of hosting online meetups with our Sacred Space Astronomy members and the Vatican Observatory staff, scholars and friends during the Full Moon in Tucson (or thereabout) continues on Saturday January 3, 2026 at 10:00 AM Tucson time (Mountain Standard Time time), 12:00 Noon Eastern Daylight time, or 17:00 UTC.
This meetup is a perk for our Sacred Space Astronomy subscribers- you get to chat with each other, and astronomers and scientists from the Vatican Observatory!
We’ll also have the latest astronomy news and an update about the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope1.
Br. Macke’s skills at meteorite analysis has led him to positions on the mission teams for not one, but two asteroid missions: the Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, and OSIRIS-REx, where he designed a custom Ideal-Gas Pycnometer to study asteroid samples.
Br. Bob was our guest back in December of 2023 – just a few short months after the OSIRIS-REx mission returned its sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth. Now, two years later, some very interesting research has come from those samples!
This is the third time that Brother Bob will be joining us. His topic this month will be the current status of the NASA missions he’s working on… and an “inside baseball” look at how NASA missions are proposed, selected, developed, and executed.
Brother Robert Macke SJ is a member of the U.S. Central and Southern Province of the Society of Jesus. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1974. After studying physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Washington University in St. Louis, he taught astronomy for a few years Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, Ohio) before entering the Society of Jesus in 2001.
As a Jesuit, he studied philosophy at St. Louis University. He then taught physics, astronomy, and mathematics at Rockhurst University (Kansas City, Missouri) for one year, and then began a doctoral program studying meteorite physical properties at University of Central Florida. His dissertation, Survey of Meteorite Physical Properties: Density, Porosity and Magnetic Susceptibility, detailed measurements on more than 1200 individual meteorite specimens from major collections throughout the United States and Europe.
Between 2011 and 2013 he studied theology at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, during which time he also constructed a new ideal-gas pycnometer for measuring meteorite densities. Br. Macke joined the Vatican Observatory in July 2013, where he studies meteorite physical properties in the observatory’s meteorite laboratory. In August 2014, Br. Macke became the curator of the Vatican collection of 1200 meteorite specimens.
Research Interests
Br. Macke studies meteorite physical properties, including density, porosity, magnetic susceptibility, and more recently, thermal properties. His research has been conducted on most of the major meteorite collections in the United States and Europe. In addition, Br. Macke is involved in a study concerned with interpreting gravimetric data from the surface of the Moon and Mars. This requires measuring the density and porosity of lunar and Martian materials including not only meteorites but also lunar samples brought back to earth by the Apollo space missions of the 1960’s and 1970’s. He has measured about 60 individual Apollo Moon rocks from all 6 successful missions and all representative lithologies.
The Trojan Asteroids
The Trojan asteroids orbit the Sun, trapped at the Lagrange points of Jupiter’s orbit – 60° ahead (L4) and 60° behind (L5) Jupiter. They form dense swarms around these Lagrange points. We expect (hope) that they are remnants of a population or populations that were otherwise ejected from the solar system by Jupiter and are not found in the main asteroid belt. (Sort of a “missing link” of asteroids, hence the name Lucy).
More about our guest
- Br. Macke was a guest for the Vatican Observatory podcast back in July of 2022: The Stuff of Stars.
- Br. Macke was a guest on Episode #24 of the Master Minds Podcast
- Check out Br. Macke ‘s YouTube channel: Macke Makerspace
When? Saturday, January 3, 2026: Rain or shine
What time? These meetups will happen around lunch time in North America: in particular, 10:00 AM Tucson, 12:00 Noon ET, 17:00 UTC.
How do you access these meetups? Join Sacred Space Astronomy and you’ll get an email with the full link! If you are already a member, you can also log into this website, and the link will be visible below.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81983826753?pwd=096uhwaPc8Zm66XSoZ7Xv3uMgwRPS4.1
Meeting ID: 819 8382 6753
Passcode: 659215
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One tap mobile
+13126266799,,81983826753#,,,,*659215# US (Chicago)
+16465588656,,81983826753#,,,,*659215# US (New York)
Join instructions
https://us02web.zoom.us/meetings/81983826753/invitations?signature=gCzJxBX9TpU8JWU6TvZfKwTl3HiD7tWuEopU1WSnGvI
This meeting was created in a non-BAA environment and is not intended for the discussion of healthcare, health education, or health data research.
*The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope consists of the Alice P. Lennon Telescope, and the Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility.
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Click here to view our video playlist of previous Full Moon meetups.
