Vatican Astronomer Visits Michigan Following Award

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. (AP) - A Vatican astronomer and Jesuit brother from the Detroit area has won a prestigious award from the American Astronomical Society.

The Detroit Free Press reports Guy Consolmagno of Birmingham walked through the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills on Monday with the Carl Sagan Medal. He was there retrieving three meteorite samples that had been on loan from the Vatican and on display for 12 years at the museum.

Consolmagno is returning the samples to the Vatican's collection as he starts a new job as fundraising director for the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope near the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.

Consolmagno became the first clergyman to receive the Carl Sagan Medal at the society's Division of Planetary Science last week.

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