These ten asteroids were all named after Jesuits. I should note that the list is not exhaustive; there may be other asteroids that are named for Jesuits, but this is what I came up with after a couple hours’ search of the IAU minor planet center database.
Portrait by Peter Paul Rubens. (Public Domain)
3562 Ignatius
- e 0.1546
- a 2.3387 AU
- i 5.7256 deg
- P 1306.358 days
St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) was the founder of the Jesuit order. The name of the asteroid was given to Ignatius in 1991 in honor of the 500th anniversary of his birth. (Ref: Minor Planet Circular 17028)
Portrait artist unknown. (Public Domain)
3727 Maxhell
- e 0.1500
- a 3.318 AU
- i 5.377 deg
- P 2207.577 days
(Minor Planet Circular 26424): Named in memory of Maximilian Hell (1720-1792), famous for his determination of the solar parallax from his observations of the transit of Venus in 1769. Appointed director of the imperial observatory in Vienna in 1755, he prepared and published an important series of astronomical ephemerides. Name suggested by astronomers at the Astronomical Institute at Tatranská Lomnica.
I add: Maximilian Hell SJ was a Hungarian Jesuit. He was alive at the time of the suppression of the Jesuit order in Austria and Hungary in 1782.
Photo: Vatican Observatory
4597 Consolmagno
- e 0.11945
- a 2.609 AU
- i 4.868 deg
- P 1539.18 days
(Minor Planet Circular 41381): Through experimental petrology, Guy Consolmagno (b. 1952) studied the origins of eucritic meteorites. As the curator of the Vatican meteorite collection, Guy’s more recent efforts have focused on determining the densities and porosities of meteorites and making comparisons with the densities of minor planets.
I add: Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ is a member of the Maryland province of the Society of Jesus. In 2015, he became director of the Vatican Observatory, a post that he continues to hold today.
(Public Domain)
4705 Secchi
- e 0.1278
- a 2.329 AU
- i 8.637 deg
- P 1298.64 days
(Minor Planet Circular 20160): Named in memory of Angelo Secchi (1818-1878), Italian astronomer, director of the observatory of the Collegio Romano in Rome from 1848 to 1878. Famous for his work on stellar spectroscopy, he made the first spectroscopic survey of the heavens, and his classification scheme divided the spectra of the stars into four groups. Secchi also made an extensive study of solar phenomena and was a co-founder of the Societa degli Spettroscopisti Italiani, now the Societa Astronomica Italiana.
I add: Fr. Angelo Secchi SJ was a Jesuit who was ordained a priest in 1847.
Br. Bob Macke
11266 Macke
- e 0.244
- a 3.2356 AU
- i 1.863 deg
- P 2125.84 days
(Minor Planet Circular 103977): Robert J. Macke SJ (b. 1974) is a research scientist and meteorite curator at the Vatican Observatory, whose fundamental contributions include studying the relationship between shock state and porosity in carbonaceous chondrites.
I add: Oh, hey, that’s me!
Portrait by Robert Edge Pine, London, 1760. (Public Domain)
14361 Boscovich
- e 0.09627
- a 2.582 AU
- i 13.243 deg
- P 1515.67 days
(Minor Planet Circular 41940): Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich (1711-1787), Jesuit professor of mathematics and philosophy at Rome and Pavia, was for some years in Paris and later in Milan, where he founded the Brera Astronomical Observatory. He wrote on the determination of orbits of comets, mathematics and optics.
Photo: Vatican Observatory
14429 Coyne
- e 0.3008
- a 2.441 AU
- i 21.3956 deg
- P 1393.06 days
(Minor Planet Circular 41572): George Coyne (b. 1933), S.J., has been an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory since 1969 and its director since 1978. He has helped with the completion of the large Vatican telescope on Mt. Graham, Arizona. His polarimetric studies have centered on cataclysmic variables, among other subjects.
I add: Fr. Coyne stepped down as director of the Vatican Observatory in 2006, and is currently the McDevitt Distinguished Chair in Religious Philosophy at LeMoyne College in Syracuse NY.
Engraving by Francesco Villamena (Public Domain)
20237 Clavius
- e 0.06685
- a 2.1496 AU
- i 3.661 deg
- P 1151.127 days
(Minor Planet Circular 110623): Christopher Clavius (1538-1612) was a German mathematician and astronomer. He figured out where to place the leap years in the Gregorian calendar. Pope Gregory XII revised the Julian calendar with the assistance of Clavius.
I add: Fr. Clavius was a German Jesuit who entered the order in 1555, and was one of the most celebrated mathematicians of his day. Fr. Matteo Ricci SJ, who used his knowledge of mathematics and astronomy to gain access to the Chinese court, was trained by Clavius.
Photo: Vatican Observatory23443 Kikwaya
- e 0.12417
- a 2.5668 AU
- i 14.901 deg
- P 1502.02 days
(Minor Planet Circular 89082): Jean Baptiste Kikwaya Eluo (b. 1965) is a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Staff Astronomer at the Vatican Observatory. Using optical meteor measurements, he estimates the bulk densities of smaller meteoroids through numerical ablation models.
I add: Fr. Jean-Baptiste Kikwaya SJ also dedicates much of his scientific study to near-earth asteroids.
Photo: Vatican Observatory302849 Richardboyle
- e 0.1144
- a 3.158 AU
- i 25.606 deg
- P 2049.93 days
(Minor Planet Circular 98715): Richard Boyle (b. 1943) is an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory. His work has specialized in high-precision photometry of stars and stellar clusters, often using Vilnius system filters. His work has application ranging from asteroseismology to the discoveries of asteroids with the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope.
