Br. Guy Consolmagno will be visiting Malta next week. He is both a Jesuit brother and a planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory, splitting his time between the meteorite collection in Rome and the Vatican telescope in Arizona. Thanks to his Vatican connections, his work has sent him around the world several times to dozens of countries and every continent (including a meteorite hunting expedition to Antarctica). He will deliver a talk to the public on Wednesday 16th May 2018 at 6pm at Pope John Paul II hall at Stella Maris College, Gzira. In this talk he will share some of those adventures, and reflect on the larger meaning of the common experience as scientists... not only what they do, but why they do it.

Besides his career as a scientist Bro Guy is a popular speaker and author of several books popularising astronomy and science. His most popular book is 'Turn Left at Orion' and a new edition will be published soon. He believes in the need for science and religion to work alongside one another rather than as competing ideologies. In 2006 he said, "Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it's turning God into a nature god."

Br Guy Consolmagno is an excellent speaker and he has been awarded the Carl Sagan Medal for outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public in 2014. He was last in Malta in 2004 when he delivered three excellent talks at Bighi, and the public is encouraged to attend next Wednesday's talk.