Galileo Galilei - Information for learners

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What a funny name this scientist has?  This man played a huge role in the way people looked at the workings of the solar system and astronomy in general.

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  1. When was Galileo born?
  2. Why was he not popular in the 1600's.
  3. What different observation did the church and Galileo have about the Sun and the Moon?
  4. What else did he discover about the Sun?
  5. Why was he send to jail?
  6. When did Galileo die?
Galileo was a ground breaking astronomer, physicist, mathematician, philosopher and inventor. Among his inventions were telescopes, a compass and a thermometer. 

He enrolled in the University of Pisa when he was young to study for a doctor, but he never finished it.  He rather wanted to study Mathematics.

He designed a telescope that could magnify 3 times and later on one that could magnify 30 times - this was the start of his fascination with space.  In 1610 he saw 4 objects around Jupiter that were not stars and these turned out to be the largest satellite moons surrounding Jupiter.

Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. They were later renamed the Galilean satellites in honor of Galileo himself. 

Galileo had a few ideas because of things he discovered, like for instance Earth was not the center of the universe, the Moon had craters on it and the Sun's surface was not smooth.  Most people did not believe him and they did not like all these theories that he had.  They even threw him in jail.  Today however his theories are proven and a lot of scientists can build on his discoveries.

Galileo were not always right, which proved that even the most clever people can also be wrong.  He did not believe that the Moon had something to do with the tides of the sea.  He said it is because of the Earth's rotation (which was wrong).

Galileo had many quotes that people still use today.  You can read it here.

Thanks to this man, scientist to come could find more interesting facts about space.  Galileo was never scared to speak what was on his mind, even if it did upset the church and got him put under house arrest.  He believed in his discoveries and stayed true to his beliefs.  

We can all learn a valuable lesson from this.

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1 comments
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Howdy anneke! Another great lesson and another great innovator and scientist!

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