A main-belt asteroid, orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, has been named (864404) Paulmueller in honour of Jesuit priest Paul R. Mueller, the Vatican Observatory announced on 7 October 2026. The asteroid takes about 4.3 years to orbit the Sun.
It was discovered on 27 December 2014 by K. Černis and R. P. Boyle at Mount Graham in the United States, where the Vatican Observatory has a telescope. The name was recorded in a bulletin of the International Astronomical Union group that names small Solar System bodies.
According to the official citation, Paul Mueller, born in 1960, is an American Jesuit priest, physicist and philosopher of science, and a noted expert in the faith-science dialogue. He was a researcher and vice-director of the Vatican Observatory from 2015 to 2022 and taught at Loyola University Chicago and the Pontifical Gregorian University.
Since 2022 he has been superior of the Jesuit community at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, and since 2024 prefect of the Gregorian University’s library system.
