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Galileo Gahilei
Running head: Galileo Gahilei
Galileo Gahilei
Aiko Corralz
Salt Lake Community College
Galileo Gahilei
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Galileo Galilei is well known as being a philosopher, mathematician, astronomer
and a physicist. He was born in 1564 in Pisa, Italy. He was a professor at the University
of Pisa where he taught astronomy. Before Galileo was able to use the telescope to
observe the universe, he taught the theory of the Earth centered theory.
He did not invent the telescope, but after hearing about the invention, he quickly
crafted a series of different types of telescope with the ability of different optical
performances. With the use of the telescope, Galileo have made discoveries and observed
objects in the universe. He is known and credited for these discoveries that he has made
such as Jupiter’s four moons and phases of Venus. Galileo also was one of the first to
observed Saturn’s rings, Neptune, sunspots on the Sun, and the mountains and craters on
the moon. He has made these discoveries and observations through the use of the
telescope.
When Galileo first observed Jupiter he noticed four bright lights that changed in
the position that it was in around Jupiter, which he concluded to be moons. These four
moons orbited around Jupiter and are now called Galilean moons after discovered by
Galileo himself. Another discovery by the help of the telescope was the phases of Venus.
By discovering the phases of Venus showed the similarities of the phases that the moon
undergoes. This evidence is one of the most important in the astronomical history, which
proved Copernican’s theory was more realistic than the Ptolemaic system. The Ptolemaic
system is the theory that the Earth is the center of the universe and all of the objects
revolve around the Earth. Galileo eventually opposed to this theory after his observation
of Venus.
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Galileo discovered the rings of Saturn by first observing Saturn’s moons. He
viewed the rings from the edge on, which also gave the ring an invisible look. During the
time Galileo have discovered the four moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus and the rings
of Saturn, it may have seem that these are the planets that his telescope can observe, but
that is not quite true. When he was observing Jupiter, he noticed a bright star near the big
red planet. At the time Galileo believed that it was just another star, but as researchers
now discovered that Galileo have seen Neptune close to Jupiter. It is amazing how he was
able to spot the furthest planet in our solar system, without knowingly at the time that it is
in fact not a star, but the planet Neptune.
His other discoveries such as the sunspots on the Sun were viewed and examine
when he noticed dark patches on the surface of the Sun. Along the side of these patches,
he realized that these dark patches did not stay still, but it moved in a motion that showed
that the Sun had an axis that it was rotating on.
Since he was able to examine he Sun from Earth, Galileo did not hesitate to view
the moon. To his surprise he noticed mountains and craters on the surface of the moon.
This was more than what he had expected to be on the moon. Galileo being one of the
first to claim that he has seen these physical features on the moon, this added to his many
of the implications that he has made about the universe that no one knew before.
The discoveries and observations that Galileo has strengthen Copernicus’s theory,
the theory that all the planets revolve around the Sun, because of rotation of the planets
that he watched. This theory was controversial and was not believed by many people.
Many people believed that the Earth was the center of the universe and that all the planets
revolved around the Earth. The reason for this was, because the Catholic Church heavily
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supported the theory of the Earth being the center of the universe. Although this theory
has been disproven with the help of Galileo, Copernicus’s theory became more believable
with by the evidences of Galileo.
As Galileo’s discoveries and observations became published, the Catholic
Church pressed charges against Galileo and accused him of being a heretic. Going against
the Church will occasionally be sentenced to the death penalty, but in Galileo’s case, he
was dropped of heretic charges and was demanded to not release his belief of the Sun
being the center theory. Despite of Galileo’s confidence of the sun centered theory, he
could not deny his observations and published another book about Copernicus’s theory.
This book was brought into the attention of the Catholic Church once again, which they
did not took so kindly of Galileo.
It was not until the second book that Galileo published that condemned him to life
in prison, which he was actually placed under house arrest. Even under house arrest,
Galileo did have visitors until the day he died at the age of 77. His death was caused by
poor health. Although, prior to his death he lost his sight due to his observation of the
Sun through the telescope.
Overall, Galileo Galilei has made remarkable discoveries through the use of a
telescope that he has reconstructed. The discoveries that he has made, made him one of
the most important figures in history. Galileo’s curiosity and beliefs kept him to push
further into understanding the universe. Without his strong belief of what he has observed
and his courage to publicly publish what he has discovered. This did not only cost his
freedom, but his observations changed the history of astronomy and helped future
astronomers to study more of the dynamics of outer space.
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Galileo Gahilei
Bibliography
“Galileo: the Telescope & the Laws f Dynamics.” Astronomy 161 The Solar System.
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/galileo.html
Helden, Albert Van. “Sunspots.” The Galileo Project. 1995.
http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/observations/sunspots.html
Kowal, Charles T. & Drake Stillman. “Galileo’s observations of Neptune.” Nature.
1980.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v287/n5780/abs/287311a0.html
O’Connnor, JJ & Robertson, EF. “Galileo Galilei.” 2002.
http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Galileo.html
Zumwalt, Ann. “Galileo’s Moon—Then and Now.” 2011.
http://galileo.rice.edu/lib/student_work/astronomy95/moon.html