Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Vatican probes life on Mars question

byStaff writers
11 January 2004
Reading Time: 1 min read
AA
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

ROME (CNS): Engineers at the US space agency NASA weren’t the only people thrilled at the successful landing of the Spirit probe on Mars.

Vatican astronomers, too, were overjoyed and relieved at the robot’s safe touchdown on January 3.

Only three other exploratory probes have made it successfully onto the red planet.

The British-built Beagle 2 landed on Mars on December 25, but no radio signal had been received to indicate it survived.

“It’s an engineering success. A huge breakthrough,” Jesuit Father George Coyne, who is director of the Vatican Observatory, said of the Spirit landing.

The Spirit robot will sniff out signs of life or conditions that support life.

Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, an astronomer, planetary scientist and curator of the Vatican meteorite collection, said NASA scientists aimed the probe to land in a large crater that may have been a lake. The robot, he said, would look and test for minerals that would suggest the presence of water.

“Water is needed for life and such a discovery would open up all new questions as to is there life there now or had there been once upon a time,” said Br Consolmagno.

But Fr Coyne said there’s more at stake than just a mere search for other forms of life.

“What would be truly incredible would be to discover life on Mars that’s independent of life on Earth,” he said.

Related Stories

Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

When asked what the theological impact of such a discovery would be, Fr Coyne laughed. ‘Ask the theologians. It would be very, very interesting.’

ShareTweet
Previous Post

BROTHER BEAR

Next Post

Miracle boy

Staff writers

Related Posts

Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland
QLD

Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

25 June 2022
QLD

Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

24 June 2022
Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families
Vatican

Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

24 June 2022
Next Post

Miracle boy

Confessional secrecy vital

School uniform probe

Popular News

  • Archie’s beating heart means he is not dead, according to a Catholic institute

    Archie’s beating heart means he is not dead, according to a Catholic institute

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Three Queensland deacons preparing for priestly ordinations in the next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • First man ordained to priesthood for Brisbane Oratory

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland
QLD

Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

by Staff writers
25 June 2022
0

MATER yesterday celebrated the extraordinary service Mercy Sister Angela Mary Doyle has given to Brisbane – on...

Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

24 June 2022
Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

24 June 2022
Three Queensland deacons preparing for priestly ordinations in the next week

Three Queensland deacons preparing for priestly ordinations in the next week

23 June 2022
Pope prays for victims of devastating earthquake in Afghanistan

Pope prays for victims of devastating earthquake in Afghanistan

23 June 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping