Galileo+Galilei

Introduction
Galileo was a famous Italian astronomer, who had various other professions, such as physicist, philosopher and mathmetician. Born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa, which was part of the Duchy of Florence at that point in time. He was one of six children, but only four of the six survived past infancy. He was an alma mater of the University of Pisa, but also attended the University of Padua. Galileo was known for various things, and was an expert on a number of subjects, ranging from Dynamics to observing astonomy with a telescope. It was actually Galileo himself who altered the original design of the telescope to put it to use in observing the heavens. Putting all of his creations that are used today, he was a prominent leader in the Scientific Revolution. Although he was a genius in almost every field he put himself into, his findings brought up massive controversy in the ancient world, and his learning challenged their beliefs, that had remained all-powerful since time immemorial. He faced heavy persecution, and was eventually placed under house arrest and became blind, dying on January 8 1642 at the ripe age of 77.

**Contributions**
As previously mentioned in the aforementioned introduction, Galileo was essentially a master in every field he approached, and can be called the father of modern physics and astronomy whole heartedly. It's a fact he DID NOT invent the telescope-such a claim that can only be made by dutch spectacle, glasses for the less grammatically inclined, maker Hans Lipperhey-but altered it to where he could observe the universe with it. It was by no means powerful, and in fact it was weaker than an average childrens telescope, but in Galileo's hands, it portrayed pictures he sketched that are shockingly similar to the same picture we have this very day. He even studied that 'dark spots' of the sun-Sunspots-which is most likely the cause of his blindness in his later lifetime. All believed that the universe was perfect, and when Galileo discovered these imperfections on the sun, Church officials refused to even look through the telescope under the pretenses that Lucifer was the cause.

==Later Years ==

After a lifetime of relentless study to better mankind, a lifetime of ruthless persecution was his reward. As previously stated, Galileo proved the current ages 'truths', not as lies, but as the best mankind could understand with their limited understanding. When he began to understand more, the church saw it as a threat to their seat of power. Galileo was a religious man, as almost all were in such days, and stated that the bible wasn't wrong, but its interpreters were, and the written scriptures could not be taken so literally. This was Galileo's undoing. Priests, or members of the church were allowed to decipher the Scriptures, and interpret the will of Heaven. For a man, noble or otherwise to do so, was the threat to their seat of power. They slapped this legend with a truly horrifying thing in his age. They charged him, with Heresy. The Inquisitors were terrifying, for a man who believed Galileo's idea of the universe being helioscentric, was burned at the stake. Luckily, when he was first charged, he was cleared of all charges. The first time around, that is. Galileo's only stupidity waa that he would not back down and tone it down against the church. The next book he wrote, "Dialogue on the Two Great Systems of the World", which was written in a three sided arguement. The dumbest and most foolish of the three represented Galileo's enemies and the church, and the genius in it all was designed about Galileo himself. Though an outstanding hit with the public, it was a failure against the church, and he was once again charged. Though found guilty, he was not to be killed, merely placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. For a man who deserved To be immortalized with the great thinkers of the past in his own time, his own countrymen dealt him the ultimate insult, and left him unappriciated until 1737.

==References ==
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