Through his telescope, he observed mountains and craters where people had previously just seen shades of dark and light. Here is one of Galileo’s drawings of the moon’s imperfection. Unfortunately for Galileo, it wasn’t even the last of his discoveries of the universe’s imperfection. The idea that the sun, a place of heavenly perfection and the center of all things, could move, was heretical. He decided that the sun must rotate on its axis, just like the Earth.Īnd what do you know-that’s actually true.īut the Church didn’t like it. This is Galileo’s drawing of a single sunspot moving (and changing a little) over the sun’s disk. Galileo recognized that sunspots actually migrated over the sun’s surface, as shown here. And you wouldn’t believe how many indigenous cultures have mythology surrounding the sun as a deity-or perhaps you would believe it.īecause the sun was a very spiritual figure in the sky, and the astronomy the time had held until very recently that beyond the chaotic Earth was a realm of perfection, the idea that the sun had spots was monstrous. The Church could believe that the sun was the center of everything because it really did seem godlike. They’re actually very bright-if you took the sun away, they’d shine as bright as the full moon in the sky-but they look dark compared to the rest of the sun’s surface. These are darker patches of the sun’s surface. Well, here’s a modern-day image of sunspots. Here is one drawing Galileo made of the surface of the sun that he saw through his telescope. Wait, no don’t-please don’t! Galileo may have made some fantastic observations about sunspots, but he actually went blind because of it! Well, take a look at the sun for yourself. What sparked controversy was that the sun and the moon themselves could have blemishes. What was unbelievable was that the sun could somehow be less than perfect. It wasn’t all that unbelievable that the light in the sky that determines day and night would have a central location in the universe. The Church, the highest authority at the time, didn’t resist it. The myth that Galileo invented the telescope comes from the fact that it was how he made his observations, and he was the first astronomer to use a telescope to try to answer the leading question of the day: what was Earth’s place in the universe?Īt this time, the Copernican hypothesis that the sun was the center of the universe was very popular. So what is true about Galileo, and how did he contribute to our understanding of astronomy? The idea that he invented the telescope is more understandable…but, again, it’s not true. If you’ve been following my more recent astronomy posts, you probably realize why-in Galileo’s time, people already knew that the Earth moved around the sun. I also wouldn’t be surprised if you thought “condemned by the Inquisition for believing the Earth orbited the sun.”īut neither of these are true. If you thought, “inventor of the telescope,” you’re not alone. When you hear the name “Galileo Galilei,” what immediately comes to mind?
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