Why Galileo Galilei Got Locked Up For Life

Galileo Galilei was the greatest astronomer of all time. His discoveries in the 16th and 17th centuries shocked the establishment, including the Catholic Church, which at the time believed the Earth was the center of the universe. Armed with his telescope and a brilliant mind, Galileo proved them wrong. The Earth actually revolves around the Sun. And for this assertion, he would be condemned to a tragic life. A century before, a Polish scientist named Nicholas Copernicus had come up with the unorthodox idea that the Sun was at the center of the solar system, not the Earth, called the heliocentric model. Copernicus's theory was just that, a theory. Galileo proved Copernicus was right. He challenged many preconceived notions through a rigorous process of testing. His reliance on scientific experimentations may have started with a fascination with pendulums. As a student, he was struck by the steadiness of a swinging lamp in the Cathedral of Pisa. He noticed that it didn't matter how far the chandelier swung. It always took the same amount of time to complete one swing. Galileo used his own pulse to measure time, as there were no wristwatches back then. His experiments with pendulums confirmed that it took exactly the same time for a pendulum to go back and forth, no matter the distance it swung. His discovery led to the later invention of the pendulum clock, which some say opened the door for the Industrial Revolution, as the development of timekeeping allowed for a faster pace of life. Galileo's discoveries brought him some fame. He gained a teaching position at the University of Pisa, the same university where he dropped out a few years earlier. His father insisted he study medicine, though he was more interested in math and never graduated. While teaching at the university, academics argued over Aristotle's belief that heavier objects fell faster than lighter ones. Most scientists agreed with the ancient philosopher. Galileo did not. He reportedly set up a demonstration at the Leaning Tower of Pisa to prove Aristotle and his colleagues wrong. If a heavier object falls faster than a lighter one, as Aristotle maintained, it would look something like this. But Galileo showed that all objects, regardless of their mass, freefall with the same acceleration. He was right, but his smugness did not win him many friends. His colleagues felt he got a kick out of proving them wrong. Galileo's contract with the University of Pisa was not renewed. Fortunately, he found another teaching position at the University of Padua. He needed the work, as his father had died, and he was entrusted with the care of his younger brother, Michelangelo Galilei, who became a composer. During his nearly two-decade tenure at the University of Padua, his fame increased. In 1600, he met Marina Gamba, a Venetian woman with whom he had three children out of wedlock, a son and two daughters. Worried that his daughters wouldn't marry well, he urged them to become nuns in a convent near Florence, despite the fact that he had run into trouble with the Catholic Church. Galileo had challenged the Church's official position that the Earth was the center of the universe. It all began in 1609, when he learned of a simple telescope built by a Dutch spectacle maker. It was a mysterious invention that could make distant objects appear closer. He soon built telescopes of his own. Some Venetian merchants saw their value as a navigational tool and were eager to get their hands on them. While they did eventually find their way to the decks of sailing ships, Galileo's ambitions extended beyond the seas to the skies. He used his telescope to make startling discoveries. He found that the moon was not a perfect sphere, as Aristotle believed all heavenly bodies were, but instead was full of imperfections. These are Galileo's own sketches showing the moon's valleys, deep chasms, and mountains. He discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, destroying the notion that the heavens revolved around Earth. His belief that the Earth wasn't at the center of the solar system was solidified when he discovered that Venus went through phases just like our moon. The nature of these phases could only be explained by Venus going around the Sun rather than the Earth. He concluded that Venus must travel around the Sun, at times passing behind and beyond it. Therefore, Earth was not the center of the universe. The Sun was. This angered the powerful people in academia and the Church. The majority of scientists and theologians agreed with Aristotle's point of view that the Sun, other planets, and stars revolved around Earth. Galileo believed in God and was in awe of the role that science played in the beauty of God's creation. He wrote a letter to a student explaining that his observations did not contradict the Bible because scripture was written from an earthly perspective. But it nevertheless got him into trouble with a Roman Catholic church which, at the time, essentially ruled Italy. In 1633, he faced an inquisition whose purpose was to prosecute those considered enemies of the state. He was interrogated and threatened with torture. He was then charged with being, quote, vehemently suspect of heresy and agreed to plead guilty and was forced to recant a scientific discovery in exchange for a lighter sentence. His punishment was house arrest for the rest of his life. Authorities banned his book, championing his belief in a Sun-centered universe and he had to stop teaching or otherwise spreading his, quote, heresy. Galileo spent nine years under house arrest at his villa in Arsitri, near Florence, before dying on January 8, 1642 at the age of 77. It took more than 350 years for the Vatican to formally acknowledge its mistake. In 1992, Pope John Paul II apologized and officially declared that Galileo was right. Galileo's work influenced scientists for generations to come, including Sir Isaac Newton, who developed the law of gravity. I did a story about Newton, which I'll link in my description. Today, astronomers refer to Jupiter's four moons as the Galilean satellites in honour of him. In the centuries that followed Galileo's telescopic observations, telescopes have grown in size and power, revealing secrets of the universe that even he could never have imagined. If you're passionate about space, my friends at CuriosityStream have a wealth of incredible space documentaries, including one on the James Webb Telescope, the world's largest, most advanced, and most expensive telescope ever. Their space documentaries will enlighten, entertain, and inspire you to perhaps one day travel beyond our planet. There are thousands of entertaining documentaries. My favourite is the Redesign My Brain series on training your brain to improve your attention, memory, and thinking speed. You can sign up for CuriosityStream for only $14.99 for the entire year with my custom link, not month, but year. Just head to curiositystream.com slash Newsthink, which I'll link in my description and pinned comment. Thanks for watching. For Newsthink, I'm Cindy Pom.