Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galileo was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa. He was an Italian scientist and scholar famous for his discoveries in astronomy. He is also widely considered as the father of modern science. Galilei was the first of six children. His father was a well-known musician. Galilei was educated in a monastery in Vallombrosa before he studied medicine at the University of Pisa. But he never finished his medical degree. Instead he chose to study mathematics which he was really passionate about. After constructing a strong telescope which he turned towards heaven he made some fundamental discoveries which questioned previous beliefs and theories. After a life fully dedicated to science he died on January 8, 1642, at the age of 77.
Unlike many of his colleagues Galilei supported the Copernican theory of the heliocentric model of the Universe which means that the earth and planets revolve around the sun.
A replica of the earliest surviving telescope attr...
English: Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition, pai...
Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Justus Sustermans p...This theory was proved by Galileo's observations he made with his telescope. He noticed that the planets Mercury and Venus pass through phases just like the Moon. The only way they could do that is if they circled the Sun, and not the Earth. Furthermore, Galilei could clearly distinguish four moons around Jupiter. This meant that everything in the Universe did not circle the Earth.
This view was not shared by most of his contemporaries and he came in for a lot of criticism from the Catholic Church which accused him of heresy because the Church was attached to the Aristotelian geocentric model of the universe. The geocentric model was strongly related to the view that the human beings are the masters of the Universe and questioning that model meant questioning the whole traditional doctrine established by Aristote and the Catholic Church.
The roots of the conflict...