dlw+106's+galileo

//__Galileo __// Galileo was an important astronomer and overall thinker, of his time. During his lifetime he made new discoveries in astronomy, math and physics. Born on February 15, 1564 to Vincenzo and Giulia Galilei, he made several controversial discoveries in his life, disproving Aristotle and the Roman Catholic Church. Home schooled for fear of corruption in the church run schools, he became quite an intelligent person, questioning that that was not proven. Galileo agreed with Nicolas Copernicus in thinking that the Earth was not at the center of the universe, and disproved Aristotle on his thoughts about falling matter. //__**Moon Observations﻿** __// Galileo used his telescope to view the moon. He discovered that contrary to Aristotle's beliefs, the moon was not a perfect sphere, in fact it was peppered with craters. In addition to the craters, he found giant mountains on the moon. This angered many people, because many claimed he was taking away from the perfection of god and heaven with his observations. Although his thoughts were heretic for the times, we now have proof that he was right in his beliefs, seeing as we have sent several men to the moon. Here are some colorized photos I edited of the moon and its craters.

**__//Jupiter And It's Moons //__**
Galileo was the first to discover that Jupiter had moons orbiting it, proving the theories of Copernicus and Aristarchus. He discovered them first as 4 stars that although they moved around a lot, they always stayed around Jupiter. After many nights of observations, and many drawings and notes, he decided that Jupiter, like our Earth, had moons. With this new development, he had more proof for Copernicus, driving him to look further into astronomy and the universe. Here is my animation of the moons of Jupiter.

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= = = = = = = = =__//Saturn's Rings ﻿//__= Galileo Galilei was the first to observe Saturn, and the rings that surrounded it. He realized that they were always there around Saturn, and then decided to look at it some more. Upon further observation he realized that they were rings made out of rocks and ice that had formed together over many years.

__//Sunspots On The Sun //__
Similar to his discovery of the craters on the moon, this discovery angered many people as well. This was yet another theory accusing the "heavenly" spheres of imperfections. He discovered them using his telescope, noting darker spots on the Sun's. They are caused by intense magnetic fields that bring the temperatures on certain areas of the Sun up by about 1,000 K, changing the color of the Sun in places. This didn't sit well with many people, especially in that era, and he was not popular for these claims, no matter how logical they were.

__//Venus Has Phases //__
One of Galileo's old students, Benedetto Castelli, was the one that prompted him to turn his telescope towards Venus, in speculation that if the Earth circled the Sun, then Venus must have phases. Sure enough, Galileo saw that Venus did have phases, just like the moon. This was even more proof for Copernicus' views on the universe, and how it was set up.