Astronomy History: 400 years ago

Yesterday, August 25, marks the 400th years from the time that an Italian mateghematician in the name of Galileo Galilei focused the telecope into the heavens. This momentous event opened the way to new understanding of man's position in the universe.

Galileo observed many fascinating sights. One is the geography and topography of the moon,

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 its mountains , valleys and craters. He also saw the phases of Venus, which proved to be an evidence of Corpernicus' heiocentric universe model. He saw the giant planet Jupiter along with it's four large moons-Ganymede, Io, Callisto, and Europa.

Photo (right) The Phases of Venus proves the Heliocentric (sun-centered) universe model by Copernicus.

Galileo immediately announced this newly found truth about the sun being the center of the universe, but the Catholic Church's support of Geo-centric universe never changed. Instead,

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 galileo was put to house arrest until his death for teaching such information that they view as heresy.

Photo (right). Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition.

If Galileo was still alive today, he would have been very happy about the dramatic increase of knowledge and understanding of the universe compared to his days. But even today's knowledge about the universe is only a scratch of the things yet to be discovered.

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