Four Sisters of the Holy Child Mary Get Asteroids Named After Them

Carte du Ciel

In April 1887, 56 scientists from 19 countries met in Paris to apply the new discipline of astrophotography to map the entire sky. Their plan was to have institutions from across Europe and the United States, including the Vatican Observatory, to take photographic images of particular swaths of the sky. These photographs were developed on glass photographic plates (22,054 in all). The Vatican Observatory was assigned areas in the constellations of Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Draco and a vast area of ​​the Milky Way,

The project started in 1887, and ran for several decades, however it was never completed, possibly due to the project’s vast scale. Modern astronomers are finding use for the data on those old plates, however; Wikipedia states: “…the appearance of the Hipparcos Catalogue in 1997 has led to an important development in the use of this historical plate material.” In fact, the Vatican Observatory has recently completed a project to digitize its old glass plates from the Carte du Ciel survey.

Sisters of the Holy Child Mary

“The history of astronomy is riddled with underappreciated women who looked to the stars long before their scientific contributions were recognized. But the constellation of early women astronomers is glowing brighter, writes Carol Glatz for Catholic News Service, with the recognition of four once nameless nuns who helped map and catalog half a million stars in the early 20th century.

Glatz reports that the nuns, Sisters Emilia Ponzoni, Regina Colombo, Concetta Finardi and Luigia Panceri, were recruited by the Vatican to measure and map stars from plate-glass photographs. They cataloged the brightness and locations of a whopping 481,215 stars during their years of diligent work. Photos of the nuns had appeared in books about the history of astronomy, but the identity of the women was not known—and their accomplishments not recognized—until now.

Their years of labor were finally acknowledged when Father Sabino Maffeo, a Jesuit priest who works at the Vatican Observatory, found their names while organizing papers for the archives. Today, the project to which the nuns contributed is as obscure as the nuns themselves, but at the time it was one of the largest scientific undertakings in history.” – Smithsonian Magazine, Erin Blakemore, May 6, 2016

About the Asteroid Discoverers

Dr. Kazimieras Černis 

(born November 11, 1958, Vilnius) is a Lithuanian astronomer and astrophysicist, active member of the IAU, and a prolific discoverer of minor planets and comets. He is a chief researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy (ITPA).

In 2012, he discovered 420356 Praamzius, a trans-Neptunian object and dwarf planet candidate. – Wikipedia

In IAU WGSBN Bulletin V004_006, there were six named asteroids with Černis listed as the discoverer, including (191775) Poczobut.

Rev. Richard P. Boyle, S.J.

Rev. Boyle specializes in observational astronomy, in studies of stellar populations in Milky Way Galaxy star clusters and in research of the atmospheres of giant red stars. By making observations at VATT he collaborates with astronomers pursuing research on various objects like brown dwarfs, sdB stars for astroseismology, and discovery of solar system asteroids.

Click here to read Fr. Boyle’s full bio.