Monday 11 February 2013

Facts About Gallileo Galilei


  • Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution.
  • In 1583, Galileo entered the University of Pisa to study medicine. He enrolled to do a medical degree but never finished.
  • Galileo left the university in 1585 before earning his degree. He continued to study mathematics, supporting himself with minor teaching positions.
  • His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. 
  • Galileo built(improved) his first telescope in 1609, which featured three times magnification. Later, he developed models that could see up to 32 times magnification.
  • Galileo is often incorrectly credited with the creation of a telescope. Instead, he significantly improved upon them.
  • When NASA sent a mission to Jupiter in the 1990s, it was called Galileo in honor of the famed astronomer.
  • He also worked on a pendulum clock, although the first working one was built by Christiaan Huygens.
  • Along with making contributions to the development of a universal clock, Galileo also created a military compass and a thermometer.
  • He published his first astronomical observations in 1610. The collection was called "Starry Messenger."
  • His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter  and the observation and analysis of sunspots.
  • In 1610, he made observations of 4 objects surrounding Jupiter that behaved unlike stars, these turned out to be Jupiter's for largest satellite moons: Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. They were later renamed the Galilean satellites in honor of Galileo himself.
  • Galileo refused to believe in Kepler's theory that the moon caused the tides, instead believing it was due to the nature of the Earth's rotation.
  • Galileo also found that the Milky Way was actually close-packed stars rather than some sort of nebula. He was able to locate a number of stars previously unseen with the naked eye.
  • According to his notes, he observed the planet Neptune in 1612, but did not recognize it as a planet. He thought it was simply another dim star.
  • Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger, praised Galileo for his contributions to the fields of astronomy and physics in December of 2008.
  • Later in his life, Galileo became blind. There have been theories that his blindness came from his telescopic research, but most likely he lost his sight from cataracts or glaucoma.
  • He died on January 8, 1642 at the age of 77 in Arcetri, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Italy.


Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

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