Galileo Galilee and the Catholic Church

Galileo Galilee and the Catholic Church

The Scientific Revolution hit Europe and other places all over the world with a big impact that left everlasting effects to this day. Many of the Scientific Revolution ideas came from the theories of many successful scientists, philosophers, astronomers, physicists, mathematicians, and other scientific discoverers. It is Galileo's contribution to the Revolution that left one of the most everlasting and most important contribution to the Revolution. The Italian and Catholic mathematician, astronomer, and physicist Galileo was a strong contributor to the new scientific ideas that were developing in the 1600s and 1700s by his invention of the telescope and publication of his ideas that agreed with Copernicus. During his life however Galileo became a nuisance for the Church and for many years had to defend his idea and discoveries against the majority.

Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15th, 1564. He wrote about falling bodies in motion using inclined planes to test his theories. In 1609 the telescope was invented and Galileo began making his own lenses for better telescopes and then started looking at the skyHe wrote a book called the “Starry Messenger”, and said that there were mountains on the moon, the Milky Way was made up of many stars, and there were small bodies in orbit around Jupiter. He used his mathematical skills to calculate the motions of these bodies around Jupiter. In 1610 he started looking at Saturn and discovered the rings, and the phases of Saturn.

Nicholas Copernicus deduced the Sun-centered view of the universe. Before him, the entire universe was believed to move around an unmoving Earth, as it seems to do at first glance. The Sun appears to go around the Earth, not the other way around. If the Earth moves, why aren't we all flung off into space? Copernicus' idea simplified the entire solar system. But, it conflicted with the Catholic Church. And so, in order to publish without having to fight the Church, Copernicus modified...

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