Galileo And The Telescope Essay, Research Paper

Galileo was not the person who invented the telescope, but he was the first one to use the telescope to study the heavens. He made many observations using the telescope that shocked the religious world. In this short essay, I will only focus on three observations and how an Aristotlean reacts to it. These observations played a very important role on the development of astronomy.

The first object he observed was the moon. Through his observations he concluded that the moon s surface was very irregular and imperfect. He saw that the moon s surface had mountains and valleys. It also consists of many other irregular shapes. This was a very big contradiction to Aristotle s theory. To Aristotleans the world was the center of the universe and that it was perfect. This showed us the holes in the celestial realm. It is not perfect like people believed it to be. If the moon had all of these imperfections, then any other member of the universe could also be this way. It also showed the Earth to be just a planet. Not the unique figure thought to be. It is not unique. In fact, it was regular because the moon also had the same properties.

The second observation was the four moons of Jupiter. Galileo observed points of light that changed their positions with time around the Planet. These points he concluded were the four moons that orbit Jupiter. It showed that there were things in the heavens that Aristotle knew nothing about. The was not unique anymore because it wasn t the only planet to have objects orbit it.

And last but not least, Galileo saw that the Earth shines on the moon. It showed the Earth to be a little less celestial. The Earth can shine on another object like any regular object. It is not as special as initially thought to be.

Aristotleans around the world did not want to accept these observations. They had an excuse to every single point. To disregard these new beliefs, they blamed it on the preciseness of the telescope. They used to say that the telescope was not refined enough.

These observations of the heavens got Galileo in a lot of trouble with the church. In fact, it got him in so much trouble, that the latter part of his live was spent under house arrest.