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How Does Galileo Discover The Moons Of Jupiter

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Galileo Discovers the Moons of Jupiter
(1610)
Galileo Galilei

Introduction
Galileo Galilei, (1564-1642) the gifted and extremely curious Italian scientist, made great use of the telescope to discover such unsettling things as the irregularities of the moon's surface; it was believed at the time to be perfectly smooth, a belief which conformed to Catholic dogma. Moreover, Galileo's observations with the telescope led him to the conclusion that Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) was right: the earth did indeed orbit around the sun and not vice versa. Such a viewpoint cast great doubt on the accepted natural philosophy (first enunciated by Aristotle) of a geocentric universe and thus of human beings' centrality in the universe. Thus the conflict between religion and science in the seventeenth century was begun. In this excerpt Galileo describes his discovery of the moons of Jupiter from January to March, 1610. This discovery also cast doubt on the perfection of the Aristotelian universe which had been described by the Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy in the second century, A.D.

Questions to Consider
One of the hallmarks of the Scientific Revolution was the establishment of the scientific method of inquiry. How does Galileo's notebook description of his observations help …show more content…

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