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¿Estos personajes tuvieron conflicto entre sus creencias y su labor científica?

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¿Estos personajes tuvieron conflicto entre sus creencias y su labor científica?

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No, porque ellos desde un principio sabian lo que la ciencia conllevaba, y aunque por veces la ciencia se contradiga con la religion es ahi cuando ellos mismos buscan las alternartivas e incluso tratan de dar nuevos aportes de acuerdo a la religion como es en el caso de George Coyne.

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El mundo de la ciencia no esta hecho solo para personas que solamente creen en la ciencia, en realidad como es visto con los 2 cietificos antes mencionados han habido aportes importantes y el tener una religion no impide el poder descubrir u observar nuevas cosas en la ciencia, en cambio, podria abrir mas oportunidades.

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Mercalli Modificada: Conoce la escala sísmica que mide la intensidad del daño de un sismo

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Existe una escala dividida en doce grados que se basa en los efectos y daños causados a distintas estructuras producto de la intensidad de un movimiento telúrico: la escala sismológica de Mercalli Modificada (MM).

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Escalas de los sismos

Escala de Intensidad o Mercalli. Es una evaluación cualitativa de la clase de daños causados por un sismo, debe su nombre al físico italiano Giuseppe Mercalli. Generalmente, un gran terremoto producirá valores de mayor intensidad que uno pequeño pero hay otros factores capaces de afectar como la cantidad de energía liberada, la distancia del epicentro, la profundidad focal del sismo, la densidad de la población, la geología local del área, el tipo de construcción de los edificios así como la duración del sacudimiento. En 1902, Mercalli propuso una tabla, que fue posteriormente modificada en 1931 y desde entonces se ha llamado escala Modificada de Mercalli (MM). Consta de 12 grados de intensidad donde se muestran también las características de cada grado, denotado por números romanos del I al XII. No es única, pero sí la más frecuentemente usada en nuestro continente.

Escala de Mercalli (modificada en 1931 por H. O. Wood y F. Neuman)
I. Sacudida sentida por muy pocas personas en condiciones especialmente favorables.
II. Sacudida sentida sólo por pocas personas en reposo, especialmente en los pisos altos de los edificios. Los objetos suspendidos pueden oscilar.
III. Sacudida sentida claramente en los interiores, especialmente en los pisos altos de los edificios, muchas personas no lo asocian con un temblor. Los vehículos de motor estacionados pueden moverse ligeramente. Vibración como la originada por el paso de un carro pesado. Duración estimable.
IV. Sacudida sentida durante el día por muchas personas en los interiores, por pocas en el exterior. Por la noche algunas despiertan. Vibración de vajillas, vidrios de ventanas y puertas; los muros crujen. Sensación como de un carro pesado chocando contra un edificio, los vehículos de motor estacionados se balancean claramente.
V. Sacudida sentida casi por todo el mundo; muchos despiertan. Algunas piezas de vajillas, vidrios de ventanas, etcétera, se rompen; pocos casos de agrietamiento de aplanados; caen objetos inestables. Se observan perturbaciones en los árboles, postes y otros objetos altos. Se detienen relojes de péndulo.
VI. Sacudida sentida por todo mundo; muchas personas atemorizadas huyen hacia afuera. Algunos muebles pesados cambian de sitio; pocos ejemplos de caída de aplanados o daño en chimeneas. Daños ligeros.
VII. Advertido por todos. La gente huye al exterior. Daños sin importancia en edificios de buen diseño y construcción. Daños ligeros en estructuras ordinarias bien construidas; daños considerables en las débiles o mal planeadas; ruptura de algunas chimeneas. Estimado por las personas conduciendo vehículos en movimiento.
VIII. Daños ligeros en estructuras de diseño especialmente bueno; considerable en edificios ordinarios con derrumbe parcial; grande en estructuras débilmente construidas. Los muros salen de sus armaduras. Caída de chimeneas, pilas de productos en los almacenes de las fábricas, columnas, monumentos y muros. Los muebles pesados se vuelcan. Arena y lodo proyectados en pequeñas cantidades. Cambio en el nivel del agua de los pozos. Pérdida de control en las personas que guían carros de motor.
IX. Daño considerable en las estructuras de diseño bueno; las armaduras de las estructuras bien planeadas se desploman; grandes daños en los edificios sólidos, con derrumbe parcial. Los edificios salen de sus cimientos. El terreno se agrieta notablemente. Las tuberías subterráneas se rompen.
X. Destrucción de algunas estructuras de madera bien construidas; la mayor parte de las estructuras de mampostería y armaduras se destruyen con todo y cimientos; agrietamiento considerable del terreno. Las vías del ferrocarril se tuercen. Considerables deslizamientos en las márgenes de los ríos y pendientes fuertes. Invasión del agua de los ríos sobre sus márgenes.
XI. Casi ninguna estructura de mampostería queda en pie. Puentes destruidos. Anchas grietas en el terreno. Las tuberías subterráneas quedan fuera de servicio. Hundimientos y derrumbes en terreno suave. Gran torsión de vías férreas.
XII. Destrucción total. Ondas visibles sobre el terreno. Perturbaciones de las cotas de nivel. Objetos lanzados en el aire hacia arriba.

Escala de magnitud o de Richter. fue ideada en 1935 por el sismólogo Charles Richter y los valores van de 1 al extremo abierto. La medición es cuantitativa, mide la energía sísmica liberada en cada sismo independientemente de la intensidad. Se basa en la amplitud de la onda registrada en un sismograma. Es la manera más conocida y más ampliamente utilizada para clasificar los sismos. Teóricamente no tiene límite, pero un 9 en esta escala equivaldría a un Grado XII de Mercalli, es decir "destrucción total". El mayor terremoto en la historia conocida, tuvo lugar en Chile, en 1960, alcanzando los 9.5 grados Richter.
Escalas de los sismos

Autor:

Servicio Geológico Mexicano

Fecha de publicación:

15 de enero de 2017

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Escala de Intensidad o Mercalli. Es una evaluación cualitativa de la clase de daños causados por un sismo, debe su nombre al físico italiano Giuseppe Mercalli.

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Giuseppe Mercalli fue un sacerdote católico italiano, sismólogo y vulcanólogo, conocido por desarrollar una escala para medir la intensidad de los terremotos.

Mercalli nació el 21 de mayo de 1850 en Milán, donde cursó sus estudios; al graduarse de la universidad se convirtió en profesor en el seminario local. Para 1892, se había mudado a Nápoles, donde pasaría el resto de su vida cerca del volcán que estudiaba más de cerca: el Vesuvio. Murió de una muerte misteriosa el 19 de marzo de 1914, quemándose en un incendio en su apartamento. Inicialmente se consideró un accidente, pero en pocos días surgió la especulación de que había sido asesinado.

La contribución más famosa de Mercalli a la ciencia es su trabajo en la escala de intensidad de los terremotos. Mientras estudiaba la actividad sísmica en Italia a fines del siglo XIX, su acceso a la instrumentación sísmica era limitado. Se disponía de algunos sismógrafos y sismoscopios (dispositivos que indican que se ha producido un terremoto y que a veces también indican la dirección), pero la mayor parte de la información que recabó provino de relatos personales y observaciones de daños.

Para proporcionar cierta consistencia a sus análisis de terremotos, decidió que necesitaba algún método para calificar los efectos relativos de cada evento. Desarrolló entonces una escala con seis grados (lo que significa que los terremotos más desastrosos habrían tenido una intensidad de 6), pero se dio cuenta rápidamente de que esto no proporcionaba suficiente precisión.

Casi al mismo tiempo, otra escala de intensidad llamada la escala de Rossi-Forel fue ganando prominencia. Tenía la ventaja contar con diez grados de intensidad, pero carecía de detalles en la descripción de cada grado. En 1902, Mercalli modificó esta escala de diez grados para incluir el detalle que deseaba, y su nueva escala se hizo popular entre los científicos europeos. Otros sismólogos continuaron modificando la escala, cuando se publicó la traducción al inglés en 1931, llevaba el nombre de Mercalli. La escala actual se conoce como Escala de intensidad de Mercalli modificada.

Otra contribución clave a la sismología fue su detallada catalogación de los terremotos en Italia. Mercalli sintió que para comprender un terremoto, era necesario comprender la historia sísmica de esa región. En su libro I Vulcani e Fénomeni vulcanici in Italia, desarrolló esta historia para su tierra natal. Al trazar terremotos en el espacio y el tiempo, pudo reunir una imagen más clara de dónde se centraban la mayoría de los eventos.

El exhaustivo trabajo de Mercalli sobre terremotos le forjó una reputación en todo el sur de Europa, y a menudo se le pedía que estudiara eventos en todo el continente. Viajó a España en 1884 para examinar las consecuencias del terremoto de Andalucía, y en 1887 fue el investigador principal del mortal evento de Imperia, en la Riviera francesa e italiana.

Más allá de su cuidadoso trabajo sobre los terremotos, Mercalli fue durante toda su vida un estudioso de la actividad volcánica. Publicó I Vulcani attivi della Terra, en el que catalogó los volcanes conocidos del mundo y desarrolló una escala para comparar las erupciones volcánicas. Mercalli tenía una afinidad especial por el Vesubio, cuya actividad rastreaba con los mismos detalles minuciosos que los terremotos italianos. Se desempeñó como director del Observatorio del Vesubio desde 1911 hasta su muerte. Al final de su vida había ganado fama internacional como científico, la noticia de su trágica muerte apareció en la cobertura de la página tres en el New York Times ("Prof. Mercalli Murdered?," 1914).

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Giuseppe Mercalli fue un sacerdote católico italiano, sismólogo y vulcanólogo, conocido por desarrollar una escala para medir la intensidad de los terremotos. Mercalli nació el 21 de mayo de 1850 en Milán, donde cursó sus estudios; al graduarse de la universidad se convirtió en profesor en el seminario local.

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Giuseppe Mercalli (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, a)

Biographical Information

Giuseppe Mercalli (1850-1914) was an Italian seismologist, vulcanologist, and Roman Catholic priest best known for developing an earthquake intensity scale. He was born and educated in Milan, and upon graduation from college became a professor at the local seminary. Mercalli was soon removed from his post at the seminary, but the Italian government quickly found him positions at schools across the country (Marconi, 1914). By 1892, he had relocated to Naples, where he would spend the rest of his life near the volcano he studied most closely: Vesuvius (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, a). He died a mysterious death in 1914, burning in a fire in his apartment. It was initially deemed an accident, but within days speculation arose that he had been murdered ("Prof. Mercalli Murdered?," 1914).

Specific Contributions to Seismology

Mercalli's most famous contribution to solid earth science is his work on the earthquake intensity scale. While studying seismic activity in Italy in the late 19th century, his access to seismic instrumentation was limited. Some seismographs and seismoscopes (devices that signal that an earthquake has occurred, and sometimes also indicate direction) were available, but most of Mercalli's information came from personal accounts and observations of damage (Davison, 1930). To provide some consistency to his earthquake analyses, he decided he needed some method to rate the relative effects of each event. Mercalli developed a scale with six degrees (meaning the most disastrous earthquakes would have had an intensity of 6), but quickly realized that this did not provide enough precision. Around the same time, another intensity scale called the deRossi-Forel scale was gaining in prominence. It had the advantage of ten degrees of intensity, but it lacked some detail in the description of each degree. In 1902 Mercalli modified this ten-degree scale to include the detail he desired, and his new scale quickly caught on among European scientists. Other seismologists continued to tweak the scale (Cancani increased it to the current 12 degrees and Sieberg further refined the descriptions), but when the English translation was released in 1931 it bore Mercalli's name (Musson, Grünthal, & Stucchi, 2009). The current scale is known as the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale ( click here for the USGS version of this index).

Another key contribution to seismology that Mercalli made was his detailed cataloging of Italian earthquakes. Mercalli felt that in order to understand an earthquake, you needed to understand the seismic history of that region. In his book I Vulcani e Fénomeni vulcanici in Italia, he produced this history for his homeland. Plotting earthquakes over space and time, Mercalli was able to assemble a clearer picture of where most of the events were centered (Davison, 1930).

Mercalli's exhaustive work on earthquakes built his reputation throughout southern Europe, and he was often called upon to study events throughout the continent. He traveled to Spain in 1884 to examine the aftermath of the Andalusian earthquake, and in 1887 Mercalli was the lead investigator of the deadly Imperia event along the French and Italian Riviera (Davison, 1930).

Image of Diano Marina, Italy following the Imperia earthquake of 1887, of which Mercalli was a principal investigator. (Kozák, J. & Cermák, V., 2010)

Other interesting scientific contributions

Beyond his careful work on earthquakes, Mercalli was a lifelong student of volcanic activity. He published I Vulcani attivi delta Terra, which cataloged the known volcanoes of the world, and developed a scale to compare volcanic eruptions. Mercalli had a special affinity for Vesuvius, whose activity he tracked with much the same painstaking detail as he did Italian earthquakes. He served as director of the Vesuvius Observatory from 1911 until his death (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, 2011). By the end of his life he had earned international fame as a scientist, with his tragic death garnering page three coverage in the New York Times ("Prof. Mercalli Murdered?," 1914).

Mercalli at Vesuvius, where he focused much of his vulcanology research. (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, b)

Other cool stuff you should know

Mercalli's ouster at the seminary in Milan, which ultimately led to his relocation to the seismically-active Naples, was a result of his support for Antonio Rosmini, a controversial priest and philosopher (Marconi, 1914). Rosmini, derided by bishops and even the pope in his time, was beatified (deemed "blessed") by the Church in 2007 and is now a candidate for sainthood (Vatican).

Bibliography

Davison, C. (1930). Founders of Seismology. Retrieved June 3, 2011 from Google Books.

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. (n.d. a). Directors of the Vesuvius Observatory . Retrieved June 5, 2011 from http://www.ov.ingv.it/inglese/storia/direttori.htm .

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. (n.d. b). The 1906 Eruption. Retrieved June 5, 2011 from http://www.ov.ingv.it/inglese/vesuvio/storia/1906.htm .

Kozák, J. & Cermák, V. (2010). The Illustrated History of Natural Disasters. Retrieved June 5, 2011 from http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=m5u8805551g42g60&siz... .

Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph. (1914). Prof. G. Mercalli Burned to Death. New York Times. Retrieved June 3, 2011 from ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Musson, R.M.W., Grünthal, G., & Stucchi, M. (2009). The Comparison of Macroseismic Intensity Scales. Journal of Seismology. Retrieved June 5, 2011 from http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/2262/42498/1/PEER_stage2_10.1007%252Fs1... .

Prof. Mercalli Murdered? (1914). New York Times. Retrieved June 3, 2011 from ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

Vatican. (n.d.). Bl. Antonio Rosmini (1797-1855). Retrieved June 7, 2011 from http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20071118_r... .

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Giuseppe Mercalli (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, a) Giuseppe Mercalli (1850-1914) was an Italian seismologist, vulcanologist, and Roman Catholic priest best known for developing an earthquake intensity scale. He was born and educated in Milan, and upon graduation from college became a professor at the local seminary.

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Giuseppe Mercalli, sismólogo y vulcanólogo de origen italiano, fue el creador de la escala que lleva su nombre, desarrollada para evaluar la intensidad de los terremotos a través de los efectos y daños causados en los edificios.

Mercalli nació en 1850 en Italia y se ordenó sacerdote en 1872. Estudió Ciencias Naturales, centrando sus investigaciones en la evolución de los glaciares alpinos. En 1883 se produce un desastroso terremoto en Isca de Ischia (Italia) y M ercalli toma contacto sobre el terreno, de los tremendos efectos de aquél acontecimiento. Fruto de aquella experiencia y posterior estudio, escribe el libro "Los terremotos de Casamicciola" ese mismo año.

Dos años después, gracias a sus investigaciones sobre los terremotos, escribe un segundo libro sobre los volcanes y su efecto sobre los temblores de tierra. Dicho libro tuvo una gran repercusión en el mundo académico europeo de la época, ya que trazó un mapa muy completo, a nivel sísmico, de toda la península italiana.

En 1882 es ya un reconocido científico y experto en la materia, enseñando vulcanología y sismología en la universidad de Nápoles. Algunos años después, fruto de su experiencia y estudio de los terremotos Giusppe Mercalli ideó una escala para medir la intensidad de los terremotos, basada en la escala Rosi-Forel, de 6 grados. Pero, en 1902, después de un aparatoso terremoto en la ciudad italiana de Musino, modifica su propia escala, perfeccionándola, y aumentándola en 6 grados más, quedando en una escala definitiva de 12 grados de intensidad.

Dicha escala de Mercalli se divide en dos tramos. Los cuatro primeros corresponden a la percepción subjetiva de los terremotos por las personas que lo han sufrido, y el resto, hasta 12, por los daños evaluables (objetivos) en edificios y otras estructuras.

El estadounidense Charles Richter (1900-1985) estudió la escala de Mercalli para desarrollar su propia escala en 1935, que se orienta a la medición de la energía liberada por un terremoto. Es decir, la escala de Richter representa la energía sísmica liberada en un terremoto, mientras que la escala de M ercalli se basa en el efecto o daño producido en las estructuras y en la sensación percibida por las personas que lo han sufrido.

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Giuseppe Mercalli, sismólogo y vulcanólogo de origen italiano, fue el creador de la escala que lleva su nombre, desarrollada para evaluar la intensidad de los terremotos a través de los efectos y daños causados en los edificios. Mercalli nació en 1850 en Italia y se ordenó sacerdote en 1872.

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Este cura desde muy chico se interesó por el estudio de la superficie de la tierra.

Uno de los sistemas más utilizados, en el pasado, por los científicos para medir un sismo es la escala de Mercalli. Lo que pocos saben es que este sistema fue creado por un sacerdote italiano llamado Giuseppe Mercalli.

Mercalli nació en 1850 en Milán y fue ordenado sacerdote a los 21 años de edad. Este joven desde muy chico se interesó por el estudio de los fenómenos que afectan la superficie de la tierra y decidió estudiar Ciencias Naturales.

En 1892 se trasladó al sur de Italia para ser profesor en la Universidad de Nápoles. Aquí tuvo la oportunidad de estudiar el volcán Vesubio y la actividad sísmica que se registraba en la zona. Un año después se produjo un terremoto en la isla de Ischia y el sacerdote fue al lugar para estudiar sus efectos.

Sus estudios de los terremotos, en diversas partes de Europa, lo llevó a crear en 1902 el sistema de medición que luego se conocería como la escala de Mercalli, utilizado para medir la intensidad de los sismos según los daños materiales.

En 1911 fue nombrado director del Observatorio Vesubiano de Nápoles, cargo que desempeñó hasta su muerte en 1914.

¿Cómo funciona la escala de Mercalli?

El cura Mercalli para realizar esta escala se basó en el sistema de medición de sismos de diez grados elaborado por Michele Stefano Conte de Rossi y François-Alphonse Forel.

La escala de Mercalli está dividida en 12 grados y se representan en números romanos. Aquí se mide la intensidad del sismo a través del movimiento que percibe la gente y los daños materiales. La clasificación va desde ? muy débil? hasta ? catastrófico?.

Este sistema de medición fue mejorado años más tarde por el sismólogo estadounidense Charles Richter, autor de la escala que mide la magnitud del sismo a partir de la energía liberada. Está es la más empleada actualmente.
NO TE PIERDAS: Lo que debes saber sobre los perros rescatistas
Vía: Aci Prensa

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¿Sabías que un sacerdote creó una escala de medición de sismos? - National Geographic en Español

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Este cura desde muy chico se interesó por el estudio de la superficie de la tierra. Uno de los sistemas más utilizados, en el pasado, por los científicos para medir un sismo es la escala de Mercalli. Lo que pocos saben es que este sistema fue creado por un sacerdote italiano llamado Giuseppe Mercalli.

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Realizo la escala de Mercalli, este mide la intensidad de un sismo a través del movimiento que percibe la gente y los daños materiales

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El italiano Giuseppe Mercalli (1850-1914) nació en Milán y se ordenó de sacerdote en 1872. Dos años después empezó a enseñar Ciencias Naturales en el seminario de Monza luego de terminar sus estudios en esta área.

Enseñó geología y mineralogía en la Universidad de Catania hasta que en 1892 empezó a dedicarse a la docencia de la mineralogía en la Universidad de Nápoles. En 1902 creó el sistema de medición de intensidad de sismos que lleva su nombre.

¿Cómo funciona la escala? A diferencia de la de Richter, que usa valores numéricos provenientes de sismógrafos, la escala de Mercalli se basa exclusivamente en la percepción de quien la usa según cuánto se hayan dañado las estructuras tras un sismo. Tiene grados en números romanos del I (Muy débil) al XII (Catastrófico).

Mercalli murió quemado a los 64 años en extrañas circunstancias en su casa de Nápoles. Una lámpara de parafina se cayó y ocasionó un incendio. Lo encontraron aferrado a una manta con la que pretendía cuidarse de las llamas, según cuenta un perfil de Las Últimas Noticias.

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Robert Coyne was born on January 19 1933 in Baltimore, Maryland, of Irish stock, the third in a family of eight, and was educated at the Loyola High School in Blakefield, Maryland. He joined the Society of Jesus at 18 and was ordained priest in 1965 after the usual arduous Jesuit training, in the early years of which he would often read books on astronomy under the blankets with a torch after lights-out.

After ordination, having already taken a degree in Mathematics from Fordham University in 1958, and a doctorate in astronomy in 1962 from Georgetown University, he began research at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and a became a visiting astronomer at the Vatican Observatory.

The Vatican Observatory is headquartered near the papal summer palace at Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome, but its main activities are centred in Tucson, Arizona, away from the light pollution and smog of Rome, which had made stargazing impossible there since the early 1960s. Coyne became head of the Vatican Observatory in 1978, one of the few appointments made in the month-long reign of Pope John Paul I.

Fr Coyne, at the invitation of Pope John Paul II, devoted much of his energy to the dialogue between science and theology. In the 1990s he organised a series of conferences on "God's Action in the Universe" at the Observatory's headquarters in Castel Gandolfo, in collaboration with the Centre for Theology and the Natural Sciences of Berkeley, California.

A letter from that Pope to Father Coyne on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Newton's Principia remains one of the most detailed statements of Catholic theology on the relation between science and faith. Coyne also wrote a book (with Alessandro Omizzolo) on the subject, Wayfarers in the Cosmos: The Human Quest for Meaning.

Coyne had no difficulty with the classical theory of evolution, and rejected "intelligent design", held by many evangelical Christian opponents of evolution, as unscientific and untrue. This led to controversy in 2005 when Coyne sharply criticised an article by Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, Archbishop of Vienna, which seemed to lend Catholic support to the theory.

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Father George Coyne, chief Vatican astronomer who saw no contradiction between science and faith - obituary

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Robert Coyne was born on January 19 1933 in Baltimore, Maryland, of Irish stock, the third in a family of eight, and was educated at the Loyola High School in Blakefield, Maryland.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Jesuit Father George V. Coyne, who led the Vatican Observatory as its director for 28 years, got his start in the field of astronomy as a young student in formation for the priesthood by secretly studying under his blanket, flashlight in hand.

Throughout his life, Coyne, who died Feb. 11 in Syracuse, New York, at age 87 from bladder cancer, credited a forward-thinking professor of classical Greek for nurturing his passion by arranging for him to borrow astronomy books from a local library. That foresight led Coyne to become one of the world's most respected and well-known Jesuit scientists.

Coyne served as Vatican Observatory director from 1978 to 2006, overseeing the modernization of its facilities, raising its profile in the science world and welcoming a new international generation of Jesuit astronomers to its staff. He first joined the observatory staff as an astronomer in 1969 and held the position until 2011.

He also served from 2007 to 2011 as director of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.

Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, the Vatican Observatory's current director, recalled the first words from Coyne when he joined the observatory staff in 1993: "Do good science."

"He created a space where we were all free to pursue that science," Consolmagno told Catholic News Service Feb. 13. "He acted as a firewall between us and the vagaries of the Vatican. He made us welcome and he made our collaborators and visitors welcome."

Coyne, he said, created an atmosphere that attracted young astronomers from around the world and established a program for adjunct scholars who could be affiliated with the observatory, use its facilities and spread its name without living on site. The arrangement opened the door for women to join the staff, he said.

"George did a lot to promote women in astronomy," Consolmagno said, explaining how his predecessor initiated the biennial Vatican Observatory Summer School for astronomy graduate students. Nearly half of the students were women, and the program helped develop young astronomers in the developing world, he said.

Coyne most recently was on the faculty of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, where he had taught astronomy while holding the McDevitt Distinguished Chair of Religious Philosophy since 2011.

"We are deeply and profoundly saddened by the passing of Father Coyne. His influence on so many fronts was profound," Linda LeMura, Le Moyne's president, said in a statement.

"Le Moyne was privileged to have him here for the past eight years, and he spent the final years of his life doing what he loved - teaching young people about astronomy," she said.

Coyne was widely known for promoting conversations on the intersection of theology and science.

A 1987 letter from St. John Paul II to Coyne on the 300th anniversary of Isaac Newton's Principia, which described the laws of motion, prompted the Jesuit to write extensively on Catholic theology and the relationship of science and faith. Among his most widely known works was the 2002 book, Wayfarers in the Cosmos: The Human Quest for Meaning, co-written by fellow Vatican Observatory astronomer Father Alessandro Omizzolo.

He was instrumental in organizing conferences in the 1990s on "God's Action in the Universe" at Vatican Observatory headquarters in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, in collaboration with the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences of Berkeley, California.

In a 2010 interview with Catholic News Service after receiving the George Van Biesbroeck Prize from the American Astronomical Society, Coyne said he believed that Jesuit astronomers can make unique contributions to the dialogue involving theology and science. "But I have insisted ... we have no reason entering into this dialogue unless we are doing hardcore research," he said.

Research was an important part of Coyne's astronomical legacy. His work included the study of the lunar surface that helped guide NASA as it planned the Ranger missions and the Apollo crewed missions to the moon. He also conducted research on Mercury's surface, interacting binary star systems that give off sudden bursts of intense energy, and Seyfert galaxies, a group of spiral galaxies with small and unusually bright star-like centers.

Born Jan. 19, 1933, in Baltimore, Coyne spent nearly all of his priesthood as an astronomer.

After graduating in 1951 from a Jesuit-run high school near Baltimore, Coyne entered the Jesuit novitiate in Wernersville, Pennsylvania. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a licentiate in philosophy from Fordham University, a doctorate in astronomy from Georgetown University and a licentiate in sacred theology from Woodstock College.

He was ordained a priest in 1966.

Coyne soon thereafter joined the staff of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and held various positions with the lab while taking on additional responsibilities and eventually becoming its associate director in 1977.

His appointment as Vatican Observatory director in 1978 came under the brief tenure of Pope John Paul I. That same year he also became associate director of the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory. For a year beginning in 1979 he was acting director and head of the observatory and the university's astronomy department.

Coyne is survived by his brothers Thomas and Francis.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated Feb. 17 in Panasci Chapel at Le Moyne College. Burial will be in the Jesuit cemetery in Wernersville.
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Father George Coyne, astronomer, promoter of science-theology dialogue, dies

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Jesuit Father George V. Coyne, who led the Vatican Observatory as its director for 28 years, got his start in the field of astronomy as a young student in formation for the priesthood by secretly studying under his blanket, flashlight in hand.

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Quantum Cosmology and Creation | George Coyne | Nobel Conference

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Fr. George V. Coyne SJ, who directed the Vatican Observatory for nearly 30 years from 1978 to 2006, died on Tuesday, February 11 at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y where he was being treated for bladder cancer. He was 87 years old.
Fr. Coyne was named director of the Vatican Observatory at the age of 45 - notably he was one of the few appointments made during the brief papacy of John Paul I - after the unexpected death of his predecessor. He served until he was 73, the longest term of any Observatory director.
During his tenure as Observatory director, Fr Coyne oversaw the modernization of the Observatory's role in the world of science, welcoming onto its staff a number of young Jesuit astronomers from around the world including Africa, Asia, and South America. Under his leadership the Vatican Observatory Research Group was established at the University of Arizona and in collaboration with the University he made possible the construction of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, with the world's first spin-cast mirror, on Mt. Graham.

Fr. Coyne promoted the dialogue between science and theology at the highest level. In close collaboration with Pope St. John Paul II, in the 1990s he organized a series of conferences on "God's Action in the Universe" at the Observatory's headquarters in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, in collaboration with the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences of Berkeley, California. A series of proceedings were published by the University of Notre Dame Press. A letter from St. John Paul to George Coyne on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Newton's Principia was one of the most detailed statements of Catholic theology on the relation between science and faith. He wrote a number of publications on this topic, most notably his book with Alessandro Omizzolo, Wayfarers in the Cosmos: The Human Quest for Meaning.

And with the establishment in 1986 of the biennial Vatican Observatory Summer Schools in astronomy and astrophysics, Fr Coyne advanced the education of a generation of young astronomers, especially from developing countries.

Fr. Coyne was born on January 19, 1933 in Baltimore, Maryland, the third of eight children. He attended Catholic elementary schools and received a full scholarship to the Jesuit-run Loyola High School in Blakefield, Maryland. Upon graduation in 1951 he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Wernersville, PA. During his first year of studies in Latin and Greek literature, he was instructed by a Jesuit priest who, in addition to having a PhD in the classical languages, also had a MS in mathematics and an educated interest in astronomy; he noticed George's interest in astronomy and encouraged him in the field. George earned a B.S. in Mathematics and licentiate in philosophy from Fordham University in 1958, a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1962 from Georgetown University, and finally the licentiate in sacred theology from Woodstock College in 1965, the year he was ordained.

For his doctorate in astronomy at Georgetown University, Coyne carried out a spectrophotometric study of the lunar surface. He spent the summer of 1963 doing research at Harvard University, the summer of 1964 as a National Science Foundation lecturer at the University of Scranton, and the summer of 1965 as visiting research professor at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

Coyne's main research interests was the study via polarimetry of a number of astronomical objects. These included the surfaces the Moon and Mercury; the interstellar medium; stars with extended atmospheres; and Seyfert galaxies, which are a group of spiral galaxies with very small and unusually bright star like centers. His final papers were on the polarization produced in cataclysmic variables, interacting binary star systems that give off sudden bursts of intense energy.

Coyne was visiting assistant professor at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) in 1966-67 and 1968-69, and visiting astronomer at the Vatican Observatory in 1967-68. He joined the Vatican Observatory as an astronomer in 1969 and became an assistant professor at the LPL in 1970. In 1976 he became a senior research fellow at the LPL and a lecturer in the University of Arizona Department of Astronomy. The following year he served as Director of the University of Arizona's Catalina Observatory and as Associate Director of the LPL.

Coyne was appointed Director of the Vatican Observatory by Pope John Paul I in 1978, and in that same year he also became Associate Director of Steward Observatory. During 1979-80 he served as Acting Director and Head of Steward Observatory and the Astronomy Department, and thereafter he continued as an adjunct professor in the University of Arizona Astronomy Department.

He retired as Director of the Vatican Observatory in August 2006. After spending a sabbatical year as an Associate Pastor at St. Raphael's Catholic Church in Raleigh, NC, he remained on the staff of the Vatican Observatory and served as President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation until 2011. In that year he was appointed to the McDevitt Chair of Religious Philosophy at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY.

Coyne was awarded honorary doctorate degrees by Boston College; the Jagellonian University in Krakow, Poland; Loyola University Chicago; Marquette University; St Peter's College Jersey City; and the University of Padua, Italy. He was a member of the International Astronomical Union, the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America and the Pontifical Academy of Science.

Br. Guy Consolmagagno, S.J.

Director

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Fr. George V. Coyne SJ, who directed the Vatican Observatory for nearly 30 years from 1978 to 2006, died on Tuesday, February 11 at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y where he was being treated for bladder cancer. He was 87 years old. Fr.

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Please choose from the following options: [ George Coyne | Related Topics | Home ]

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George V. Coyne, SJ, being interviewed March 26, 2019 for the Teilhard de Chardin documentary

The Teilhard Project mourns the passing of our dear friend and Honorary Board Member, Jesuit Father George Coyne. George lost a battle with cancer in Syracuse, New York, where at the age of 87 he was still teaching at Le Moyne College. He had previously served as Director of the Vatican Observatory for 24 years.

George's fellow Jesuit, David McCallum, posted on Facebook, "A humble man of great intellect, with the pastoral heart of a priest and a great sense of humor, the kind characteristic of really wise people. He used to joke that when people would introduce him they would sometimes describe him as a 'cosmetologist' rather than a cosmologist, or as an astrologer rather than an astronomer. But this wonderful Jesuit, who has moon craters and asteroids named after him, would never embarrass his hosts by pointing out their error. He loved his mid-Atlantic roots in Baltimore even as he travelled the world and explored the stars. And he loved life, nature, being outdoors. He delighted in people and learning about our Le Moyne students' lives."

We were honored to interview him for our Teilhard documentary on March 26, 2019.

You will find tributes here to him in the New York Times, and from Le Moyne College.

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The Teilhard Project mourns the passing of our dear friend and Honorary Board Member, Jesuit Father George Coyne. George lost a battle with cancer in Syracuse, New York, where at the age of 87 he was still teaching at Le Moyne College. He had previously served as Director of the Vatican Observatory for 24 years.

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We are all made of stardust | George Coyne | TEDxYYC

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While seeking to reconcile science and religion, Father Coyne also vigorously supported Darwin and challenged believers in intelligent design.

The Rev. George V. Coyne at the Vatican observatory at Castel Gandolfo in 1991. He headed it for nearly three decades, arguing that religion had a place alongside science. Credit... Franco Origlia/Getty Images

The Rev. George V. Coyne, a Jesuit astrophysicist who as the longtime director of the Vatican Observatory defended Galileo and Darwin against doctrinaire Roman Catholics, and also challenged atheists by insisting that science and religion could coexist, died on Tuesday in Syracuse, N.Y. He was 87.

His death, at a hospital, from complications of bladder cancer, was announced by the Jesuit-run Le Moyne College in Syracuse, where he had been a professor of religious philosophy after retiring from the observatory in 2006.

Recognized among astronomers for his research into the birth of stars and his studies of the lunar surface (an asteroid is named after him), Father Coyne was also well known for seeking to reconcile science and religion. He applauded Pope Francis for addressing the role that humans play in climate change, and he challenged alternative theories to evolution like creationism and intelligent design.

"One thing the Bible is not," he told The New York Times Magazine in 1994, "is a scientific textbook. Scripture is made up of myth, of poetry, of history. But it is simply not teaching science."

Brother Guy Consolmagno, the current director of the Vatican Observatory, said in an email that Father Coyne "was notable for publicly engaging with a number of prominent and aggressive opponents of the church who wished to use science as a tool against religion."

Among those he engaged on the debate stage and in print were Richard Dawkins, the English evolutionary biologist and atheist, and Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, who, in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times in 2005, defended the concept that evolution could not have occurred without divine intervention.

During Father Coyne's tenure, the Vatican publicly acknowledged that Galileo and Darwin might have been correct. Brother Consolmagno said it would be fair to say that Father Coyne had played a role in shifting the Vatican's position.

While the church formally acknowledged in 1992 that it had "erred in condemning Galileo" in 1633 for promoting the theory that Earth revolved around the sun, Father Coyne was among the critics who complained that the admission was not only too late but also too little.

In 1996, Pope John Paul II, without defining evolution, said that it was "more than just a hypothesis." His statement that Darwin's views had "progressively taken root in the minds of researchers, following a series of discoveries made in diverse spheres of knowledge," suggested that at least in public schools, religious faith and the teaching of evolution could coexist.

In an article in the English Catholic weekly The Tablet in 2005, Father Coyne sought to reconcile religion with evolution.

"God in his infinite freedom," he wrote, "continuously creates a world that reflects that freedom at all levels of the evolutionary process to greater and greater complexity. He is not continually intervening, but rather allows, participates, loves."

He went further by finding fault with intelligent design.

"If they respect the results of modern science, and indeed the best of modern biblical research," he wrote, "religious believers must move away from the notion of a dictator God or a designer God, a Newtonian God who made the universe as a watch that ticks along regularly."

He added, "Perhaps God should be seen more as a parent or as one who speaks encouraging and sustaining words."

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The Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo. "Father Coyne oversaw the modernization of the observatory's role in the world of science," one of his successors at the observatory said. Credit... Nadia Shira Cohen for The New York Times

George Vincent Coyne was born on Jan. 19, 1933, in Baltimore, the third of nine children of Frank and Elizabeth (Brune) Coyne. His father was a traveling clothing salesman, his mother a homemaker. He is survived by two brothers, Thomas and Francis.

After being tutored by a nun on weekends ("no Saturday afternoon baseball or basketball for me," he recalled), he won a scholarship to Loyola High School in Towson, Md.

He joined the Society of Jesus when he was 18 and attended a Jesuit novitiate in Wernersville, Pa., northwest of Philadelphia, where his Greek and Latin literature professor imparted a passion for math and astronomy.

Father Coyne earned a bachelor's degree in math and a licentiate in philosophy from Fordham University in 1958 and then a doctorate in astronomy from Georgetown University. He completed a licentiate in sacred theology at Woodstock College in Maryland and was ordained a priest in 1965.

He joined the Vatican Observatory as an astronomer in 1969, taught at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and directed its Catalina Observatory. He was appointed director of the Vatican Observatory by Pope John Paul I in 1978 and was its longest-serving director, holding the post for nearly three decades.

Father Coyne presided in 1993 when the observatory mounted a new Advanced Technology Telescope on Mount Graham in southern Arizona. (Light pollution at the observatory's historic headquarters in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome had prevented the telescope from being installed there.) He established a research group at the University of Arizona and organized a summer program for graduate students.

In the 1990s, Father Coyne arranged conferences at the Vatican Observatory in collaboration with the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, a program of the Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley, Calif.

"Father Coyne oversaw the modernization of the observatory's role in the world of science," Brother Consolmagno said. "He essentially re-founded the Specola Vaticana," using the Italian name for the observatory, which dates to at least the 18th century.

After retiring in 2006, Father Coyne was president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation until 2011, when he was appointed to the McDevitt chair of religious philosophy at Le Moyne. He held that position at his death.

"George was one of the pre-eminent figures in the Catholic world who could speak intelligently and articulately about both science and faith," said the Rev. James Martin, editor at large of America, the Jesuit magazine. "And George, by nature a humble man, could often dazzle."

In the Times Magazine interview, Father Coyne was asked, "How can you describe the universe as a vast empty infinitude, largely uninhabited, and still believe in - "

"The centrality of man in the universe?" he interjected, completing the reporter's thought.

"There's no doubt about it," he went on. "To our own knowledge of ourselves, we are unique in creation because of our self-reflexivity. I can know myself knowing. I am having a conversation with you, and I can remember that conversation. To this, the Catholic Church comes along and says, 'The reason this is true is because you have an individual soul.'"

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George Coyne, 87, Vatican Astronomer and Galileo Defender, Dies

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While seeking to reconcile science and religion, Father Coyne also vigorously supported Darwin and challenged believers in intelligent design. The Rev. George V. Coyne, a Jesuit astrophysicist who as the longtime director of the Vatican Observatory defended Galileo and Darwin against doctrinaire Roman Catholics, and also challenged atheists by insisting that science and religion could coexist, died on Tuesday in Syracuse, N.Y.

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Editor's note: This reflection has been adapted from a presentation at LeMoyne College Chapel on Feb. 17, 2020 at the funeral of Mass for George Coyne, S.J.
The New York Times ran an obituary of George Coyne, S.J., last Sunday, and they emphasized his activities to support Galileo and evolution in the church. But when I wrote about him for L'Osservatore Romano, I didn't even mention those things. I'd completely forgotten about that episode to be honest. There was so much more to say.

I could list all his scientific work, his writings on faith and science, his honors and degrees. That would take about 20 minutes-if I read fast. But none of those are George.

I knew George long before he knew me: I knew George from listening to his homilies at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Tucson. I was a grad student at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Lab in the 1970s, when George was a young professor there.

The Lunar Lab was a wildly dysfunctional place in those days, with lots of infighting among the faculty, and I was living in a house with other grad students working for the various feuding professors. We would keep each other posted on what was going on in the department, and my contribution was to take the temperature of the fighting based on what George had preached on that morning.

I could list all his scientific work, his writings on faith and science, his honors and degrees. But none of those are George.

Eventually the other astronomers agreed to have George become the director of the Catalina Observatory, even though he was junior to all the rest of them. He was the only one that they all trusted. And liked.

Chris Corbally, S.J., another astronomer at Vatican Observatory, knew George even longer than I did. The first reading at George's funeral Mass from Proverbs 8:22-31 was his idea; as it describes Wisdom, it also describes George's relation to creation:

"The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works,
before his deeds of old;
I was formed long ages ago,
at the very beginning, when the world came to be.
When there were no watery depths, I was given birth,
when there were no springs overflowing with water;
before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was given birth,
before he made the world or its fields
or any of the dust of the earth.
I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when he gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
Then I was constantly at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind.

George, too, would take in all the marvels of creation, at God's side observing it all, "filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind." Not only rejoicing in the world; but delighting in humankind.

He completely disarmed the Richard Dawkinses of the world who tried to debate him because they were not prepared for someone who wasn't mad at them, who didn't want to argue at them.

People liked George because he liked people. (I'll be honest, I knew some people who didn't like him; they were generally people who didn't like themselves, either.) He completely disarmed the Richard Dawkinses of the world who tried to debate him because they were not prepared for someone who wasn't mad at them, who didn't want to argue at them. He honestly wanted to learn from them and hear what they had to say. If he would argue-and he was not afraid to do so-it would be with, not against.

That trait was a part of his scientific life and also his Jesuit life. We hear in Matthew's gospel (19:13-29) the famous story of the rich young man who wants to know, "What good thing must I do to get eternal life?" He's taken aback by the answer he hears. It's not enough to follow the commandments, to just do what we're expected to do. Rather we have to be ready to give up all our other possessions, "all our liberty, our memory, our understanding, and our entire will, all you have and call your own."

Give up your understanding? Yes, indeed. That's what a scientist does; you have to be willing to give up being satisfied with the way you understand something in order to understand it in a new and deeper way.

For the sake of their glorious obsession with science, like George, many scientists (including those who live celibacy even if they haven't vowed it) have given up "houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields"-how many Jesuit scholars have been willing to give up their fields!-only to receive "a hundred times as much and...eternal life."

In fact that passage about the rich man in Matthew is introduced by the episode where people brought little children to Jesus; and when the disciples rebuked them, Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

George was a capo, a boss; and a pastor; and role model and friend to an entire generation of young astronomers on their way to their scientific careers.

George loved to do baptisms and weddings for the children of his scientist friends; and funerals as well. He was a pastor to astronomers. His secretary in Italy, Rita, married an American telescope engineer (George did the wedding) and when their little girls (George did the baptisms) would visit their mama at work, they would run into George's office with delighted cries of "paco, paco!"

They really were trying to say "capo, capo", which is the Italian for "boss;" that's what Rita called him. And George loved it. Those little girls, by the way, are both scientists themselves now.

George was a capo, a boss; and a pastor; and role model and friend to an entire generation of young astronomers on their way to their scientific careers. Every two years another class would come to spend a month with us at our summer schools. I've gotten more than 100 emails from alumni and other colleagues, from every corner of the globe. From him they learned astronomy but also the joy of learning and the love of sharing what we've learned with each other.

There are three things that George would always tell us. First, his instruction to each of us upon arriving at the observatory was, simply: "Do good science." The science itself was the goal. And he gave us the space to make it happen. But what made science itself a worthy goal?

He would say, "Yes, we must feed the hungry and cure the blind; but if that is all we do, then we will all be hungry and we will all be blind." Our goal in life can't be just to avoid hunger. Rather, we feed the hungry so that they may live and that they may live to encounter joy and truth, the markers of God's presence.

And George would say, "In us, the universe has become self-aware." Indeed, as St. Paul reminds us in the second reading (Romans 8:18-27), "creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed." Creation could not be revealed until we were ready to receive that revelation. We become the children of God when we become aware of God's creation and thus, in it, of God's presence.

In Psalm 8 the psalmist marvels before God: "What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor." And what had the psalmist done to earn this crown of glory? It was to "consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place..."

It is by being aware of the universe that we can become aware of the Creator. We, ourselves, creatures of that very same creator, become the consciousness of creation. And in that truth we find joy. That's where we find God.

That's what it means to be a scientist, and that's what it means to be a Jesuit. "Find God in all things." Find God in the cosmos!

That was George. And that is why we found God in him.

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Finding God in cosmological things: Remembering George Coyne, S.J.

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Editor's note: This reflection has been adapted from a presentation at LeMoyne College Chapel on Feb. 17, 2020 at the funeral of Mass for George Coyne, S.J. The New York Times ran an obituary of George Coyne, S.J., last Sunday, and they emphasized his activities to support Galileo and evolution in the church.

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University of California Television (UCTV)

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Coyne ha publicado más de 100 artículos en revistas científicas revisadas y ha sido el editor de varios libros
Fundó la Escuela de Verano del Observatorio Vaticano y el Grupo de Investigación del Observatorio del Vaticano
Participo en dialogo "ciencia y fe"

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George Coyne nació en 1933, en Baltimore, y se unió a la Compañía de Jesús en 1951. Obtuvo sus licenciaturas en matemáticas y filosofía en la Universidad de Fordham, Nueva York en 1958. Se doctoró en astronomía en 1962 en la Universidad de Georgetown y completó la licenciatura en sagrada teología en Woodstock College, Maryland en 1965, cuando fue ordenado sacerdote católico. Actualmente es Presidente de la Fundación Observatorio Vaticano.

Intereses de investigación de Coyne han sido los estudios polarimétricos de diversos objetos, entre ellos el medio interestelar, las estrellas con atmósferas extendidas y las galaxias Seyfert. Más recientemente, ha estado estudiando la polarización producida en las estrellas variables cataclísmicas o las estrellas binarias interactuantes que emiten estallidos repentinos de energía intensa.

Ha participado activamente en la promoción del diálogo entre ciencia y fe, y ha sido pionero en el ciclo de conferencias "Perspectivas científicas sobre la acción divina".​ También ha estado activo en el continuo debate sobre las implicaciones religiosas de la evolución científica.

En enero de 2012 el P. Coyne dejó el Observatorio Vaticano para ocupar una cátedra en Le Moyne College, Siracusa (Nueva York), donde enseña astronomía y desarrolla una serie de conferencias sobre el diálogo entre ciencia y religión.

El asteroide (14429) Coyne descubierto el 3 de enero de 1991 fue bautizado en su honor.

Falleció a los ochenta y siete años en el Hospital Universitario de Upstate en Siracusa, Nueva York el 11 de febrero de 2020 a consecuencia de un cáncer.