Galilean Facts

Here are some facts about Galileo, the Father of Telescope and the reason for the International Year of Astronomy i.e 2009 (to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of the telescope):

GALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642)

1. He was born in Pisa, Italy to Vincenzo Galilei, a famous lutenist amd music theorist and Guilia Ammannati. His full name was Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei.

2. Based only on uncertain descriptions of the first practical telescope, known as the spyglass in Netherlands and invented by Hans Lippershey, Galileo made a Refracting Telescope with 3x magnification in 1609 and followed up with other ones of upto 30x magnification.

3. In 1610, in an account published by himself concerning his telescopic observations he argued in favour of the heliocentric Copernecian theory of the universe. To further prove his arguments, he studied the 3 largest moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa and Callisto) and found out that they were orbiting Jupiter. This was in contrast to the geocentric Aristotelian theory which stated that all heavenly bodies circle the Earth. Furthermore, he also studied the Transits of Venus which further proved the Heliocentric theory.

4. Believe it or not, Galileo had also observed the planet of Neptune in 1612, but he took no particular notice of it. Later, Johann Galle became the first person to view it.

5. Legend has it that Galileo muttered the phrase ‘epurr si mouve’ before the inquisition in 1633 when he was asked to accept the fact of the geocentric theory. The phrase literally means ‘nonetheless, it moves’ (where ‘it’ being the Earth). These words were Galileo’s most cherished words.

6. Galileo's finger is on display at the Museo di Storia del Scienza in Italy. The finger was detached from Galileo's body by Anton Francesco Gori (Florence, 1691-1757, literate and antiquary) on 12 March 1737 when Galileo's remains were transferred from a small closet next to the chapel of Saints Cosmas and Damian to the main body of the church of Santa Croce where a mausoleum had been built by Vincenzo Viviani.