Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of science", and "the Father of Modern Science".
His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the Galilean moons in his honour), and the observation and analysis of sunspots. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, inventing an improved military compass and other instruments.
Galileo's championing of heliocentrism was controversial within his lifetime, when most subscribed to either geocentrism or the Tychonic system. He met with opposition from astronomers, who doubted heliocentrism due to the absence of an observed stellar parallax. The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, and they concluded that it could be supported as only a possibility, not an established fact.
Galileo later defended his views in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which appeared to attack Pope Urban VIII and thus alienated him and the Jesuits, who had both supported Galileo up until this point. He was tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy", forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. It was while Galileo was under house arrest that he wrote one of his finest works.
Two New Sciences, in which he summarised the work he had done some forty years earlier, on the two sciences now called kinematics and strength of materials.
Achievements & Facts about Galileo Galilei
- This renowned scientist was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa. Galileo was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and flautist who played a vital role in the Scientific Revolution.
- This great man was the first to use a refracting telescope to make imperative astronomical discoveries.
- His accomplishments also include improvements to the telescope and support for Copernicanism. No doubt for this reason Galileo has been called the “father of modern observational astronomy, “father of modern physics,” and “the Father of Modern Science.” In praise of Galileo Stephen hawking said “Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science.
- Galileo Galilei was born on Feb 15, 1564 in Pisa, Italy. He died on January 8, 1642.
- He is known to the entire world as ground-breaking astronomer, mathematician, physicist, inventor and philosopher.
- Among his many inventions were telescopes, a thermometer and a compass.
- Galileo Galilei taught geometry, mechanics and astronomy at the University of Padua from 1592 to 1610.
- Galileo built his first telescope in 1609, which featured three times magnification. Later, he developed models that could see up to 30 times magnification.
- He found Jupiter’s four moons and observed their rotation. The moons are named the Io, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
- He published his first astronomical observations in 1610. The collection was called “Starry Messenger.”
- In January of 1610, Galileo discovered four satellites in orbit around Jupiter: Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. Initially, he named these Medicean stars after one of his patrons.
- In September of that same year, he made a number of observations about Venus. He was able to develop a full set of phases of the planet. This helped prove the heliocentric concept of the solar system first developed by Copernicus.
- While observing Saturn, he identified the rings as planets in their own right. Thinking it was a triple-planetary system, he noticed that the rings would appear and disappear depending on the time in which he was observing them.
- Galileo enrolled himself in the University of Pisa to get a medical degree, but he never finished. He rather went on to choose to study mathematics.
- He built on the work of others to create a telescope with about 3 times magnification.
- He later improved on his own telescope and made it with around 30 times magnification. With these telescopes, Galileo was able to observe the sky in ways previously not achieved.
- Galileo also was one of the first people to observe sunspots, which helped develop the predictions that would help identify the annual patterns.
- Using his telescopes, he was able to identify that the Moon had mountains and craters, dispelling the belief that it was a perfect sphere.
- Galileo also found that the Milky Way was actually close-packed stars rather than some sort of nebula. He was able to locate a number of stars previously unseen with the naked eye.
- According to his notes, he observed the planet Neptune in 1612, but did not recognize it as a planet. He thought it was simply another dim star.
- As one of his final works, he published a manuscript entitled “Two New Sciences,” in which he examined the movement of objects called kinetics and the strength of materials to certain stresses.
- In 1610, he made observations of 4 objects surrounding Jupiter that behaved unlike stars, these turned out to be Jupiter's for largest satellite moons: Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. They were later renamed the Galilean satellites in honor of Galileo himself.
- The discovery of these moons was not supported by the scientific principles of the time and Galileo had trouble convincing some people that he had indeed discovered such objects. This was similar to other ideas put forward by Galileo that were very controversial at that time.
- Galileo refused to believe in Kepler's theory that the moon caused the tides, instead believing it was due to the nature of the Earth's rotation. This particular incidence helps proving that even the smartest people can make mistakes.
- The Geocentric model of the universe which was embraced by earlier astronomers had the Earth at the center of the universe with other objects moving around it. Work by Galileo, Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler helped to supersede this theory with the more accurate heliocentric model. Such a view of the universe differed strongly with the beliefs of the Catholic Church at the time and Galileo was forced to withdraw many of his ideas and even spent the final years of his life under house arrest.
- Galileo became blind at the age of 72. His blindness has often been attributed to damage done to his eyes by telescopic observations he made. The truth is he was blinded by a combination of cataracts and glaucoma. Galileo died at Arcetri in 1642, the year Isaac Newton was born leaving behind his resourceful creations.
- You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.
- I esteem myself happy to have as great an ally as you in my search for truth.
- I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
- All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
- Philosophy is written in that great book which ever lies before our eyes — I mean the universe — but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols, in which it is written.
- Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.
- I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
- In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
- Doubt is the father of invention.
- Names and attributes must be accommodated to the essence of things, and not the essence to the names, since things come first and names afterwards.
- I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the Scriptures, but with experiments, and demonstrations.
- In my opinion, nothing occurs contrary to nature except the impossible, and that never occurs.
- It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved.
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