Galileo Galilei (Feb. 15, 1564- Jan. 8, 1642)

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Galileo Galilei(Feb. 15, 1564- Jan. 8,
1642)The Father of Modern Observational
Astronomy
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Early Life

• Oldest of seven children.
• His father was a musician and wool trader.
• Galileos father wanted him to study medicine
  because he said there was more money to be made.
• Sent to a Jesuit Monastery at age 11. Decided to
  become a monk which upset his father.
• Went to the University of Pisa at the age of 17
  to study medicine.

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Using his pulse while watching a lamp swing in a
cathedral, Galileo developed the Law of Pendulum
which was used to build clocks.
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• Bored with college, he dropped out and was
  tutored to satisfy his thirst for mathematics.
• He was later offered a teaching position at the
  University and began tutoring students and
  continuing his experiments.
• Galileo questioned the laws of nature accepted
  from Aristotle which stated that larger objects
  would fall faster than lighter ones.

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Galileo climbed to the top of the Tower of Pisa
to do his experiments. He lost his teaching
position when he became too arrogant with his
findings.
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Early Spyglass(Later renamed the telescope)
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New Telescope Discovers

• Moon is an irregular, rough body, not smooth as
  previously thought.
• Milky Way is composed of many stars.
• Jupiter has many small satellites he called
  Sidera Medicea after his favorite student.
• Made observations about Saturn, sunspots, and the
  phases of Venus.

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Sunspots Observations (1612)
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In 1613, Galileo stated the earth traveled around
the sun, which contradicted the teachings of the
church.
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On March 5, 1616, the Catholic Church declares
the writing of Galileo banned. He retires to his
home near Florence, Italy. He continues his
writings and observations.
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1632-1633The Pope begins to find fault in all of
Galileos writings and in February, 1633, Galileo
is charged with vehement suspicion of heresy
and tried. He is placed under house arrest until
his death eight years later.
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The church finally lifted the ban on Galileos
writing in 1822, accepting that the Sun, not the
earth, was the center of the known Universe.
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Finally, in 1992, three years after Galileos
namesake had been launched on its way to Jupiter,
the Vatican formally and publicly cleared Galileo
of any wrongdoing.