Similarities Between 1300s And 1700s

Between 1300’s and 1700’s was the time of the Renaissance. During this time, astronomy inflated with discoveries. There were multiple advanced astronomers; two astronomers who made an enormous influence on the Copernican theory were Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler. Although the Copernican theory was established by Nicolaus Copernicus, it was Kepler and Galileo who greatly impacted it. Without the help of Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler, the Copernican theory would not have been proven and remembered. During the Renaissance, astronomy advanced and excelled rapidly thanks to many significant astronomers. Before the Copernican theory was established, Aristotle had a cosmological theory that stated that the Earth was the center of cosmos,

Galileo heard about a telescope being made and tried it out himself. He created his own telescope and pointed it out into space. There he found that there were four small moons circling around Jupiter, while Jupiter went around the sun (Voelker 17). Since Jupiter revolved around the sun, that meant other planets had to also. “The fact that the moons revolved in the plane of Jupiter rotations implied that the moons were being swept around by a planet-moving force coming from Jupiter” (Voelker 71). Basically Voelker is saying, that the moons are moved by Jupiter’s rotation and gravity, showing that Jupiter is the center for those moons. When Galileo was looking through his telescope, he observed that Venus was in a different phase each day. He recorded that Venus goes through phase changes like the moon, which meant that Venus had to be revolving around the sun (Frey 392). “Galileo saw that Venus had all the phase changes that the moon had, so it could not be orbiting Earth. More and more evidence was being found to support the Copernican Theory.” In this comment Hightower made on page 63, he argued that Venus’s phase changes inferred that Venus was not revolving around the Earth. “Galileo’s work was more important than just scientific discoveries. He provided ample evidence that Aristotle was wrong in many things” (64). Hightower agrees with the fact that Galileo

One struggle with the Church that he faced was being forced into changing the title of one of his books. The original title of the book was, Dialogue on the Ebb and Flow of the Sea, but Galileo was forced to change it so it did not seem like he was pushing the fact that the tides supported his opinion and the new title also appeared more theoretical (Leveillee). The church only wanted Galileo’s writing to be discussed as a theory, because they did not believe that it was correct.. They did not want his writings to show more evidence or to be proven (Hightower 63). These instructions did not stop Galileo. Later on, Galileo published a book that cleverly took the side of the Copernican theory without disobeying his rules (Frey 393). The Church restricted Galileo because they did not agree with what he was saying. “The Church disapproved of this theory because the holy scriptures state that the Earth is the center, not the sun. As the contents of the Bible were taken literally, the publishing of these books proved, to the Church, that Copernicus and Galileo were sinners; they preached, through their writing that the Bible was wrong” (Leveillee). Since the Church believed that this system was false and erroneous (Hightower 72), Galileo was confined with his writings. With all of Galileo’s writings out, news spread about this interesting theory and Church officials feared that attacks on the geocentric