Analysis of Galileo's Contributions to Astronomy

Discoveries of Galileo

He designed some mechanical devices out of his fascination, that he pursued throughout his life. He made a pump which only required one horse to operate and shift huge volumes of water, Galileo made his telescope, in 1609.He started exploring the heavens by using his telescope and he found that the moon shines with a reflected light. He also said that the moon has an uneven and mountainous surface.He continued his exploration and added that the Milky Way was comprised of various scattered stars in the sky.

In the year 1610, Galileo explored the 4 biggest satellites of the planet Jupiter, the 1st satellites of a planet except Earth to be determined. He observed the oval shape of the planet Saturn, the phases of the Venus planet and the spots on the sun.With his continuous studies and observations, he confirmed the acceptance of the Copernican hypothesis of solar system. With all of this information, he further showed that the universe was not perfect.

The most important discoveries of Galileo

Earth’s Orbit

After the invention of telescope in Netherlands, Galileo started making his own spectacle lenses. He was able to make increasingly powerful telescopes, which helped him to monitor the solar phases of the Venus planet . He also went through similar phases to the moon after observing Venus, he concluded that the sun must be the central point of the solar system, rather than the Earth which was previously assumed.

The Principle of the Pendulum

At the Grand Cathedral Galileo noticed that a lamp swinging overhead took exactly the same period of time for each swing, even when the distance of a swing got progressively shorter. This principle made Galileo famous, and was also used to regulate clocks. The law states that “a pendulum will always take the same amount of time to finish a swing because there is always the same amount of kinetic energy in the pendulum it is merely transferred from one direction to the other”.

The Law of Falling Bodies

This law states that “all objects will fall at an equal rate, when accounting for relatively minor differences in aerodynamics and weather conditions”. To demonstrate this Galileo started dropping items of different weights at the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. All items took the same time to reach the ground. It was contrary to the law established by Aristotle that the speed of a heavy object’s fall was found not to be proportional to its weight.

Astrological Discoveries

There were many astronomical discoveries by Galileo, which the people today simply accept as common sense.Galileo discovered the surface of the moon being rough and uneven, also in 1610 he was able to discover four moons revolving around Jupiter. Even important than either of these was that many more stars exist than are visible to the eye, which came as a shocking surprise to the scientific community of that time.