What makes galileo

But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. He was a college dropout. Recommended for you. Galileo was summoned before the Roman Inquisition in At first he denied that he had advocated heliocentrism, but later he said he had only done so unintentionally.

Nearly 70 at the time of his trial, Galileo lived his last nine years under comfortable house arrest, writing a summary of his early motion experiments that became his final great scientific work. He died in Arcetri near Florence, Italy on January 8, at age 77 after suffering from heart palpitations and a fever.

His inventions, from compasses and balances to improved telescopes and microscopes, revolutionized astronomy and biology. His penchant for thoughtful and inventive experimentation pushed the scientific method toward its modern form.

In his conflict with the Church, Galileo was also largely vindicated. Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire used tales of his trial often in simplified and exaggerated form to portray Galileo as a martyr for objectivity. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. He was a college dropout. Galileo, whose father was a lute player and music theorist, was born in Pisa, Italy. Explore space from the comfort of home.

Introducing Illuminates, our accessible guides on space written by Royal Observatory astronomers. Replica of a handheld Galilean telescope. Visit us. Royal Observatory. Plan your visit. Top things to do. Unique space-inspired gifts Explore space from the comfort of home. Introducing Illuminates, our accessible guides on space written by Royal Observatory astronomers Shop. He spent several weeks observing a set of stars near Jupiter as they revolved around the planet. His studies and drawings showed the Moon had a rough, uneven surface that was pockmarked in some places, and was actually an imperfect sphere.

Galileo also observed the phases of planet Venus and the existence of far more stars in the Milky Way that weren't visible to the naked eye. He was also one of the first people to observe the phenomena known as sunspots, thanks to his telescope which allowed him to view the sun for extended periods of time without damaging the eye. This discovery also saw one of his first scientific clashes, as he used his evidence to debate fellow scientists who argued that the sunspots were actually satellites of the sun and not irregularities.

Pages from Galileo's ' Sidereus Nuncius '. In , Galileo published his new findings in the book Sidereus Nuncius , or Starry Messenger , which was an instant success. The Medicis helped secure him an appointment as a mathematician and philosopher in his native Tuscany.

He became close with a number of other leading scientists, including Johannes Kepler.