This year marks the International Year of Astronomy, 12 months that commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei, and the publication of Johannes Kepler’s Astronomia Nova (New Astronomy) in the 17th century.

Father Jose Gabriel Funes, 46, is leading the Vatican Observatory’s efforts in participating in the event.

An Argentine Jesuit, he grew up in Cordoba, home to one of Latin America’s most famous and oldest functioning observatories. Since 2006, he has headed the Vatican Observatory, which dates back to the 16th century. He spoke recently with Register correspondent Edward Pentin in his office at Castel Gandolfo near Rome about the year of celebration, the importance of astronomy in our lives, and the observatory’s latest discovery.

How will the observatory be participating in this year?

We have three initiatives for this year. We are one of the main sponsors for one event, though we’re also participating in other events. At the end of June, we’re going to have a meeting with the alumni of the summer school that we have every two years. This is a kind of combination of two meetings: In the morning, we’re going to have science sessions with topics that range from the solar system to cosmology and the origins of the universe. Then, in the afternoon, we’re going to talk about the role and impact of astronomy in culture and how astronomy can become a common space to discuss concerns about humanity — how astronomy can help to get people together to try to promote a dialogue between people of different cultures and religions.

Then in November, we’re going to have a meeting sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences about natural biology, which is the search of life in the universe, especially in the solar system, and, finally, from mid October until mid-January 2010, we’re going to have an exhibit at the Vatican Museums with antique instruments from the time of Galileo to today.

What does the year hope to achieve?

The International Astronomical Union has many different initiatives in different countries. The idea is to communicate what astronomers do and to inform the general public about the recent astronomical discoveries: What are the main questions in astronomy? You have to realize we are one Earth and one people in this universe.

A secondary goal, and I think this is important, is that many of us live in cities. We cannot see the sky, the stars, because of the light pollution.

And this is a big problem — not only for astronomers who need dark skies, but also because we are depriving the next generations of the wonderful view of the night sky. So we need to be careful how we use illumination in our cities.

Seeing the stars gives you a different perspective on life.

Exactly, and humanity is losing this perspective.

That has led me onto my next question, which is, how important should astronomy be in people’s everyday lives?

Maybe it’s not a top priority in people’s lives, but there are moments in our lives when we reflect about our origins.

To ask ourselves about the origins of the universe is to ask ourselves about our own origins, and the beauty of the night sky tells us about the beauty of the Creator. So in this sense, to these kind of questions people may provide some answers, maybe not every day, but every now and then, and so it’s good that people have these questions.

Do you see this year as a great evangelization opportunity, to reach out to secular institutions in the same field?

Yes, it is a great opportunity to show these two things that are important.

The first, I would say, is that there are scientists who are also believers. It seems that in popular culture today if you are a scientist you cannot be a believer, but this is not true. There are many scientists who are believers. There are others who are atheists, but we show with our lives that it is possible to be a good scientist and a good believer. So this is an important topic for us this year.

The other one is also to better show creation and to realize we live in a fragile world and that we have to take care of it. As Pope Benedict XVI has repeated many times about ecology, we have to be more aware of our natural resources.

He recently also talked about astronomy in the Angelus and in his homily on Epiphany. Astronomy can somehow open our hearts and minds to deeper questions, and these questions can perhaps not be answered by science, but may come from our faith, or that which goes beyond science.

The year is being held to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s first recorded astronomical observations. How much is the rehabilitation of Galileo important to the Church?

There was, as you know, the commission set up at the end of the last century by John Paul II to rehabilitate Galileo. I think the Church did what could be done. Maybe not everyone was happy with the result of the commission; it’s very difficult to make everyone happy.

It’s very nice and encouraging for us that the Pope has referred to him in the Angelus and in his homily at Epiphany, quoting him as a man of faith and science. That’s good.

Do you see faith as vital to understanding astronomy — that without faith, you won’t really have a full understanding of it?

No, I wouldn’t say so, because you can understand the nature of the universe, the laws of physics, without any faith.

What I’m saying is that there are questions when thinking about the universe. For example, it is made of hundreds of billions of galaxies. You can ask two kinds of questions: How did the universe come into being, and why it came to be. The first question we can give an answer for from a scientific point of view — we can know how planets and stars form, but to answer why this universe exists, I don’t think you can obtain an answer strictly from science. It would be too much to ask science to answer this question.

Turning to the Vatican Observatory, and your other one in Arizona, what would you say is your unique contribution to astronomy in terms of research? Is it mainly the faith aspect, or are there some real scientific discoveries that you’ve made or hope to make?

The observatory has a long tradition in astronomy. We cover the main topics of astrophysical research in the solar system, the stars in our galaxy, nearby galaxies — which is my field of research — and cosmology, the origin of the universe.

Recently, Father Chris Corbally, the vice director in Arizona, has been working with a team of colleagues in Arizona, and they discovered a binary system. They found that 50% of the stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, are part of a binary system.

So through working with NASA observations, they have discovered a binary system where they may be a system of asteroids — which means you may have planets around twin stars. This reminds us of Star Wars — I don’t remember which movie! — but the one where the child is born in a system with two stars.

So a planet like that really could exist?

It could exist. It’s not every day you make a discovery, but we also organize schools every two years for young grad students from all over the world.

You also have a new telescope in Arizona?

Yes. We have a telescope which we call the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), a small one, only 2 meters in diameter, because now you have telescopes of 10 meters in diameter.

There in Arizona is also the LBT (Large Binocular Telescope), which is a binocular telescope with two mirrors, each one 8 meters in diameter.

The technology that was used for the LBT was tested before in our telescope [the VATT]. So we are working with the University of Arizona. It’s our main partner for research and telescope facilities.

A recent conference was held at the Pontifical Academy for Science that focused on the possibility of other universes. Is that a major interest to you — that there could be other universes out there?

I’m not an expert in this field, and so it’s not the object of my research. But a cosmologist has just published papers on the possibility of infinite universes, so it’s part of our research, you could say.

Edward Pentin writes

from Rome.