Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564 his father Vincenzo Galilei decided that Galileo would be a doctor. Galileo went to the university to study medicine but when he was there Galileo discovered he was a wiz at mathematics he was able to get his father to allow him to leave. Galileo become a tutor at mathematics, he later become a professor. He was a great astronomer because he reinvented the spyglass(telescope) so it could magnify something to x30. He also wrote several books in his life time
When Galileo heard about the spyglass in 1607, he used his skills in mathematics to improve it significantly. Galileo used the spyglass(telescope) to look at the moon which he found full of craters and mountain ranges. He also found 4 of Jupiter’s moons studied Saturn and the phases of Venus. He also studied sunspots on the sun (bad idea). His observations strongly pushed him to Copernicus theory of heliocentric orbit (everything revolves around the sun) which disagreed with the Catholic church’s idea of geocentric orbit (everything revolves around the Earth) Aristotle’s death he still maintained belief in people that all celestial bodies are perfect spheres. He was also a physiscys who proved several theory’s wrong. Aristotle said that falling bodies was relative to their weight. That might sound right logically maybe even intuitively that might sound right. He put that to the test. Galileo proved that wrong and that all objects fall at the same rate of acceleration. Aristotle said falling objects maintain a constant speed. Galileo proved speed increeses in proportion to the distance of the fall.
In 1616 Galileo was brought before The Inquisition where he was tried for heresy, a person who opposed Catholic teaching. He was cleared for charges against him, but Galileo could no longer publish his ideas or theories. Unfortunately, he still published a book that said Copernicus was correct he was again called to face the inquisition and found guilty of heresy. Galileo was sentenced to life in prison in 1633. Because of his poor health he was allowed to live under house arrest he died on January 8th, 1642. I think one of the reasons we remember him is because we name satellites after him and telescopes. Galileo’s legacy was making a huge leap into the unknown and saying the Catholic Church was wrong. If Galileo didn’t do what he did, we might still be under the catholic church saying the earth was the center of everything.
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