The History of Astronomy Part 5 The Debate Concludes Copernicus is Confirmed A Whole New awareness of the Universe

Galileo Galilei ( ) Galileo was an Italian professor of mathematics and astronomy He … transformed science by developing and using the scientific method demonstrated errors in Aristotle’s theories regarding falling objects, & motion Developed the concept of inertia In 1609 he heard of the invention of the telescope. He soon had built several of his own and turned them on the sky. He discovered:

Mountains on the Moon Galileo’s lunar observations showed him that the moon was a world like ours, It had Mountains, valleys, & great plains It had new features, craters and rays. It also implied that the other planets might also be worlds like ours.

The Phases of Venus Galileo found that Venus has phases like the moon. Oddly it is brightest when it is a mere crescent. The Ptolemaic model of the universe could not explain it. The Copernican model not only could but predicted its brightness accurately.

“Its full of stars!” The fact that the Milky Way was made of faint stars established without any doubt that stars were at vastly different distances. The Celestial Sphere was shattered. It was reasonable to believe Diggs and Bruno that stars were Suns at a vast distance away… Far away enough that… …parallax can’t be seen with the naked eye! The parallax problem is solved. There was new awareness of the vastness of the Universe

Jupiter’s Moons Galileo discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter He kept track of their orbits, which ran like clockwork This observation led Galileo to doubt Aristotle’s principle of motion and come-up with the idea of inertia. Eventually the motions of Jupiter’s moons was used by Astronomers and mariners as a clock

Galileo Pays Galileo wrote a book: “The Starry Messenger” which contradicted authorities (Aristotle & Ptolemy) that the Catholic Church had established. Galileo, forced to recant, and put on house arrest for the rest of his life. His works were ordered destroyed in Catholic Countries but they already had reached protestant lands such as England where they would inspire Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton ( ) Inspired by Galileo and Kepler, before he was 23 Isaac Newton laid the foundation of modern physics. Galileo inspired him to create His three laws of motion Kepler inspired his Universal Law of Gravity Newton would go on to: make discoveries in Optics and to lead efforts to find an astronomical solution to the problem of longitude by using Jupiter’s moons The first Physics, was Astrophysics.