The International Year of Astronomy has the Jesuits at America Magazine starstruck. UNESCO chose to honor astronomy in 2009 to mark 400 years since Galileo Galilei’s first observations with the telescope, which led to the discovery of the four moons of Jupiter and uncovered earth’s real place in the galaxy.

It took nearly that long for the Vatican, which kept Galileo under house arrest and forbade him to publish, to “rehabilitate” the great astronomer.

Nonetheless, the America editors hope Catholics join in the celebration this year.

They say: “A more accurate understanding of our universe should lead to a deeper appreciation of the God who Christians believe created the heavens and the earth, and of Jesus Christ who is `the firstborn of all creation’ (Col 1:15).”

The image, which is from the Hubble Telescope, shows a small spiral galaxy caught between two elliptical galaxies, in a cluster called the Hickson Compact Group 90. The ellipticals are stretching and will eventually swallow the smaller galaxy, NASA says.