The Discoveries of Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

A Polymath

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Galileo was born on 15 february, 1564 in Pisa, Italy and died on 8 january 1642 in arcetri (near Florence), he was the first of six children in his family.

Prior to Galileo's conflict with the church, the majority of educated people in the Christian world subscribed either to the Aristotelian geocentric view that the earth was the centre of the universe and that all heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth,

or the Tychonic system that blended geocentrism with heliocentrism.

His Championship of the Copernican (Sun-centred) planetary system brought him into serious conflict with the church, which forced him to make a public recantation and put him under restrictions in later life.

Galileo's Telescope

Galileo though not the first inventor of the refracting telescope, significantly enhanced

it's power. In 1609, he learned of the spyglass and began to experiment with telescope making, grinding and polishing his own lenses. His telescope allowed him to see with a magnification of eight or nine times, making it possible to see the moon had mountains and that Jupiter had satellites.

Galileo pioneered the use of the telescope for observing the night sky or universe. His discoveries undermined traditional ideas about a perfect and unchanging cosmos with the Earth at it's centre.

Discoveries of Galileo

Galileo used observation and experimentation to interrogate and challenge received wisdom and traditional ideas. For him it was not enough that people in authority had been saying that something was true for centuries, he wanted to take test these ideas and compare them to the evidence. At the time this was quite a shocking idea, and was one of the reason that he got into trouble. He discovered...

1. Craters and mountain on the moon 

The moon's surface was not smooth and perfect as received wisdom had claimed but rough, with mountains and craters whose shadows changed the shadows to estimate the heights of the lunar mountains, showing that they were similar to the mountains on the Earth. 

2. The Phases Of Venus

The planet Venus showed changing crescent phases like those of the moon, but

their geometry could only be explained if Venus was moving around The Sun rather than The Earth. This undermined the idea that everything in the heavens revolved around The Earth (although it was consistent with the Tychonic system as well as the Copernican one).

3. Moons of Jupiter's 

On January 7, 1610, Galileo discovered, using a homemade telescope, four moons orbiting the planet jupiter. These are also known as the Galian moons:lo, Europa, Ganymede and callisto. Again, this showed that not everything in the heavens revolved around the Earth.

4. The Starts of Milky Way 

Galileo saw that the Milky Way was not just a band of misty light, it was made up of Thousands of individual stars. This theory came in 1610. 

5. The First Pendulum Clock

Pendulum Clock designed by Galileo in 1642 and made by his son in 1649. Model showing the first odeo of the application of the pendulum to the clock designed by Galileo in 1642, made his son Vincenzo in 1649 and illustrated by Vincenzo Viviani in Italy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Galileo Galilei's discoveries fundamentally transformed our understanding of the universe and established the foundations of modern science. His pioneering use of the telescope revealed celestial phenomena such as the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and the rugged surface of the Moon, challenging long-held Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views. Galileo's insistence on empirical observation and mathematical analysis laid the groundwork for the scientific method, influencing countless subsequent discoveries. Despite facing significant opposition and persecution, his work persisted, marking a pivotal shift from medieval to modern scientific thought and securing his legacy as one of history's greatest scientists.

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