How Did Galileo's Influence His Work?

Galileo Galilei, known by his first name Galileo, was a mathematician and astronomer, born in Pisa, Italy, in 1564. He credited with the development of the nautical spyglass into the telescope which enabled him to observe the universe as no one had before. This advancement allowed him gather evidence for, arguably, the most controversial idea of his time, heliocentrism, or the astronomical model in which the sun is the center of our solar system. Consequently, He was accused of heresy by the Roman Catholic Church, and much of his work was banned during his lifetime. Galileo’s observations of the natural world contributed major implications for the field of physics. His work and ideas provided vast improvements to our understanding of the universe, …show more content…
A fun fact is that this is incorrect. The Dutch invented the spyglass and had been using them nautically for some time before Galileo knew of their existence. After discovering the existence of the spyglass, Galileo greatly improved its design, tripling its potential magnification, from 3x to 9x. (See picture 3) While the spyglass was originally intended for nautical functions, it wasn't long before curiosity drove Galileo to turn his telescope towards the night sky. Galileo would become the first person to see the craters of the moon, sunspots, the phases of venus, and according to recent studies on Galileo’s work, the discovery of Neptune almost 200 years before it was officially discovered. (See picture 4) Along with these discoveries, Galileo is known for his discovery of four of Jupiter’s moons; Lo, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto, later to be known as the Galilean moons. In 1610 he published Sidereus Nuncius or the ‘Starry Messenger’ in which he documented his telescopic observations. …show more content…
This along with studying the phases of venus led Galileo to support the Copernican system, which theorized that the our solar system was heliocentric, and that the earth was not the center of the universe as was supported by the Catholic Church. In 1615, the Church declared that any teaching of the Copernican system was heresy. A year later, Galileo was summoned to Rome where he was instructed by the Church not to teach or write about the Copernican system. Fearing imprisonment and being a devout Catholic himself, he agreed not to do so. However, this did not stop his research, and in 1632 he developed a mathematic proposition to the Copernican system. This resulted in his prosecution by the Church. Much of his work would be banned and he was place under house arrest, the only thing keeping him from imprisonment was the fame he had developed during his lifetime. He would remain under house arrest for the remaining 9 years of his life. Galileo died outside Florence, Italy on January 8, 1642. Despite its best efforts, the Church could not fight against scientific truth for very long and in 1758 it lifted is ban on Galileo’s work and those supporting the Copernican System. However, it wasn't for another quarter of a century until it dropped its opposition to heliocentrism in