Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei was considered a hero of science and astronomy. He started off as a regular student in the University of Padua where he learned the physics of Aristotle. In this essay, I will talk about Galileo and his major discoveries, as well as his “life” with astronomy.

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa on the 18th of February in 1564. Galileo studied in the University of Padua where he learned the physics of Aristotle. He always questioned Aristotle’s physics and way of thinking. Galileo not only questioned Aristotle’s thinking but also questioned the physics he was being taught which was over 2000years old. An example of the things Galileo questioned was Aristotle’s law, which states that heavier object will fall faster than lighter objects in the same medium. With years of studying, Galileo soon became interested in astronomy.

Galileo Galilei had five major discoveries that had changed the modern world’s thinking and technology. The discoveries were: Galileo discovered that Jupiter had four moons, he also discovered Saturn’s ring. Galileo’s well known discovery of the moon’s surface was very important, he found out that the moon had a rough surface, he was also the first to estimate the height of mountains on the moon. Galileo saw that the sun had dark spots; this proved that the sun isn’t perfect. The last discovery Galileo had discovered was the phases of Venus and that Venus didn’t orbit the earth but orbited the sun. Galileo wouldn’t have done all of these discoveries if he hadn’t built his personal telescope. He heard of the telescope while studying about astronomy. He heard that the telescope was invented by Hans Lippershey so he built his own one.

Galileo had major discoveries but that doesn’t mean he was publishing his findings very easily. The church considered this a crime, and that Galileo shouldn’t question and change the physics of Aristotle. The church had excommunicated Galileo and had threatened to torture him and kill him. Excommunication is when a person is kicked out of the church and out of the religion. Galileo was also taken to trial in Rome, Italy. Where he was forced to confess he was wrong into saying that Copernicus’ theory about the sun being in the middle of the universe was correct. Galileo only did this fearing torture and death, but he still believed his and Copernicus’ theories.

Unfortunately, Galileo’s theories weren’t believed by the catholic until the year 1992. In the year 1992, the Catholic Church was finally convinced and finally believed that Copernicus and Galileo had correct theories. Due to the discoveries of Galileo, nowadays, we are able to improve our astronomy knowledge and are astronomy-related technology.

Works Cited Page

• J. J. O’Connor and E. F. Robertson: Galileo Galilei. November 2002. University of St. Andrews, Scotland. September 15, 2008 < http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Galileo.html>
• (Unknown author): Galileo Galilei. March 4, 2005. University of Stanford. September 15, 2008 < http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/galileo/>