Biography Of Galileo

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(sun centered theory)—that the earth revolves around the
sun. Only the Copernican model supported Galileo's tide theory, which was
based on motions of the earth.
In 1609 he heard that the Dutch had invented a spyglass, what is
now called a telescope. In August of that year he presented a telescope,
about as powerful as a modern field glass with a magnification of about 40.
He also saw that the Milky Way was composed of stars, and he discovered the
four largest moons of Jupiter. He published these findings in March 1610 in
The Starry Messenger. His new fame gained him appointment as court
mathematician at Florence. He was thereby freed from teaching duties and
had time for research and writing. By December 1610 he had observed the
phases of Venus, which contradicted Ptolemaic astronomy and confirmed his
preference for the Copernican system.
The professors of philosophy scorned Galileo's discoveries because
Aristotle had held that only perfectly spherical bodies could ...

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