Galieo Galileo was born in 1564. H

Galieo

Galileo was born in 1564. He was an excellent mathematician and by 1589
he was a professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa and fascinated with
experimental science.

At this time the Church taught, and nearly everybody believed, that the
earth was the centre of the universe and that the sun and the planets and the
moon moved round it. Before Galileo was born, the Polish astronomer Copernicus
published a book advancing the theory that the earth and the planets went round
the sun. The Church condemned this and in 1600 they burnt a man called
Giordano Bruno who said that he agreed with Copernicus.

Galileo heard of the invention of the telescope by a Dutchman, Lippershey,
and made himself one. During the winter of 1609-1610, Galileo made a series of
important discoveries which were to change the whole course of astronomical
history and which brought great misfortune on Galileo himself. The telescope was
only a small one by modern standards, yet even so Galileo discovered the
mountains on the moon, the changes in the appearance of the planet Venus, spots
on the sun, and the four moons of the planet Jupiter. He also found that the Milky
Way, which stretches across the sky as a luminous band, is made up of a vast
number of faint stars.

Galileo wrote a book in which he described these discoveries. At once he
met with opposition; one man accused him of bewitching the telescope and
refused to look through it at all. But the real trouble was that Galileo’s work
confirmed his belief in the Copernican theory. Galileo was warned by the Church
leaders and for many years he was left more or less alone. Then in 1632 he
published a book coming out in full support for Copernicus and the Church took
action. In the following year, Galileo was called to Rome and put on trial.