Br. Guy Consolmagno - Discarded Worlds: Astronomical ideas that were almost correct...

Astronomy is more than just observing; it's making sense of those observations. A good theorist needs a good imagination...and no fear of being wrong. Aryabaha in ancient India and Ptolemy in ancient Rome, the medieval bishops Oresme and Cusa, the 19 th century astronomers Schiaparelli and Pickering, all rose to the challenge; and they were all almost correct. Which is to say, they were wrong... sometimes hilariously, sometimes heartbreakingly so. What lessons can we take from these discarded images? Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ was born in Detroit, Michigan. He earned undergraduate and masters' degrees from MIT, and a Ph. D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona, was a researcher at Harvard and MIT, served in the US Peace Corps, and taught university physics at Lafayette College before entering the Jesuits in 1989. At the Vatican Observatory since 1993, his research explores connections between meteorites, asteroids, and the evolution of small solar system bodies, observing Kuiper Belt comets with the Vatican's 1.8 meter telescope in Arizona, and curating the Vatican meteorite collection. Along with more than 100 scientific publications, he is the author of a number of popular books including his latest, the new edition of Turn Left at Orion, written with Dan M. Davis. Dr. Consolmagno has served on the governing boards of the Meteoritic Society; is the past president of the International Astronomical Union, Commission 16 (Planets and Satellites) and secretary of Division III (Planetary Systems Sciences); past chair of the Division of Planetary Sciences Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. This year he holds the Loyola Chair for visiting Jesuit scholars at Fordham University.