Galileo astronomy theories

Florentine physicist and astronomer (–)

"Galileo" redirects here. For other uses, see Galileo (disambiguation) and Galileo Galilei (disambiguation).

Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February &#;– 8 January ), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei (, ; Italian:[ɡaliˈlɛːoɡaliˈlɛːi]) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italianastronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. He was born in the city of Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence. Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, modern-era classical physics, the scientific method, and modern science.

Galileo studied speed and velocity, gravity and free fall, the principle of relativity, inertia, projectile motion and also worked in applied science and technology, describing the properties of the pendulum and "hydrostatic balances". He was one of the earliest Renaissance developers of the thermoscope and the inventor of various military compasses. With an improved telescope he built, he observed the stars of the Milky Way, the phases of Venus, the four largest satellites of Jupiter, Saturn's rings, lunar craters and sunspots. He also built an early microscope.

Galileo's championing of Copernican heliocentrism was met with opposition from within the Catholic Church and from some astronomers. The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in , which concluded that his opinions contradicted accepted Biblical interpretations.

Galileo later defended his views in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (), which appeared to attack and ridicule Pope Urban VIII, thus alienating both the Pope and the Jesuits, who had both strongly supported Galileo up until this point. He was tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy", and forced to recant. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest. During thi

Galileo’s contributions to the fields of astronomy, physics, mathematics, and philosophy have led many to call him the father of modern science. But his controversial theories, which impacted how we see and understand the solar system and our place within it, led to serious conflict with the Catholic Church and the long-time suppression of his achievements.

Galileo developed one of the first telescopes

Galileo didn’t invent the telescope — it was invented by Dutch eyeglass makers — but he made significant improvements to it. After learning about the Dutch invention, he was able to develop one of his own, teaching himself how to ground lenses. His first version magnified distant objects by three times. By that fall, he could produce lenses with a 20x magnification.

His innovations brought him both professional and financial success. He was given a lifetime tenure position at the University of Padua, where he had been teaching for several years, at double his salary. And he received a contract to produce his telescopes for a group of Venetian merchants, eager to use them as a navigational tool.

He helped created modern astronomy

Galileo turned his new, high-powered telescope to the sky. In early , he made the first in a remarkable series of discoveries. He spent several weeks observing a set of stars near Jupiter as they revolved around the planet. He had discovered Jupiter’s four moons, which he named the Medicean Stars (after his patrons, the powerful Medici family), but which have since been renamed the Galilean moons, in his honor. Galileo’s close study of orbits of Jupiter’s moons and their eclipses helped create more accurate time table and measurements that later mapmakers built upon for the practice of cartography.

While the scientific doctrine of the day held that space was perfect, unchanging environments created by God, Galileo’s telescope helped change that view. His studies and drawings showed the Moon had a rou

17th century conflict between Galileo Galilei and the Roman Catholic Church

The Galileo affair (Italian: il processo a Galileo Galilei) began around , and culminated with the trial and condemnation of Galileo Galilei by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in Galileo was prosecuted for holding as true the doctrine of heliocentrism, the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the centre of the universe.

In , Galileo published his Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger), describing the observations that he had made with his new, much stronger telescope, amongst them, the Galilean moons of Jupiter. With these observations and additional observations that followed, such as the phases of Venus, he promoted the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus published in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in Galileo's opinions were met with opposition within the Catholic Church, and in the Inquisition declared heliocentrism to be "formally heretical". Galileo went on to propose a theory of tides in , and of comets in ; he argued that the tides were evidence for the motion of the Earth.

In , Galileo published his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which defended heliocentrism, and was immensely popular. Responding to mounting controversy over theology, astronomy and philosophy, the Roman Inquisition tried Galileo in , found him "vehemently suspect of heresy", and sentenced him to house arrest where he remained until his death in At that point, heliocentric books were banned and Galileo was ordered to abstain from holding, teaching or defending heliocentric ideas after the trial.

The affair was complex since very early on Pope Urban VIII had been a patron to Galileo and had given him permission to publish on the Copernican theory as long as he treated it as a hypothesis, but after the publication in , the patronage was broken off due to numerous reasons.^[

Born in , Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei's observations of our solar system and the Milky Way have revolutionized our understanding of our place in the Universe.

Galileo sparked the birth of modern astronomy with his observations of the Moon, phases of Venus, moons around Jupiter, sunspots, and the news that seemingly countless individual stars make up the Milky Way Galaxy. If Galileo were around today, he would surely be amazed at NASA's exploration of our solar system and beyond.

After learning of the newly invented "spyglass," a device that made far objects appear closer, Galileo soon figured out how it worked and built his own, improved version. In , using this early version of the telescope, Galileo became the first person to record observations of the sky made with the help of a telescope. He soon made his first astronomical discovery.

At the time, most scientists believed that the Moon was a smooth sphere, but Galileo discovered that the Moon has mountains, pits, and other features, just like the Earth.

When Galileo pointed his telescope at Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, he made a startling discovery. The planet had four "stars" surrounding it. Within days, Galileo figured out that these "stars" were actually moons in orbit of Jupiter. His discovery challenged common beliefs of his time about the bodies of our solar system. Continuing Galileo's legacy, modern telescopes and space probes observe the wonders of Jupiter's many moons. Click here for more information about space probes that have visited and observed Jupiter.

Galileo turned his gaze toward Venus, the brightest celestial object in the sky - other than the Sun and the Moon. With his observati