Date of birth: February 15, 1564
Date of death: January 8, 1642
Birthplace: Pisa, Tuscany region, Duchy of Florence, Italy

Galileo Galilei- scientist, physicist and astronomer. Galileo Galilei, who owns, perhaps, one of the most important discoveries in the field of astronomy, is less known for his achievements in the fields of mathematics, mechanics and philosophy.

Born February 15, 1564 in Pisa (Italian Duchy of Florence) in a poor noble family. His father, Vincenzo, was a musical theorist and lute player. Mother's name was Julia. The family was large: six children, and Galileo was the oldest of them.

Galileo studied at the monastery of Vallombrosa. Ros exemplary, was the best in academic performance in his class. As soon as he graduated, he seriously thought about the future of the priest, but his father was categorically against it.

At the age of 17 he entered the University of Pisa. Interested in mathematics. Studying medicine. However, after 3 years of training, his father finds himself in a very poor financial condition and the family can no longer pay for Galileo's tuition. For especially talented students, there was a benefit that allowed them not to pay tuition. They applied for it, but were flatly refused. Galileo never received his degree. Returned to Florence.

Galileo was very lucky, and he met a true connoisseur of research and scientific discoveries. It was the Marquis Guidobaldo del Monte. They were friends and the marquis sponsored many of Galileo's discoveries. It was thanks to the Marquis that in 1589 Galileo returned to the University of Pisa, but now as a professor of mathematical sciences. In 1590 he wrote a scientific work that turned the world of physics upside down. It was a treatise on motion.

In 1591, his father dies, and the young scientist takes full responsibility for the family on his shoulders. A year later, he quits his first job and goes to the Venetian University of Padua, where Galileo was offered a decent wage for his work. In addition to mathematics, here he teaches astronomy and mechanics. The students were happy to attend his lectures, and the Venetian government constantly orders various kinds of technical devices from him. He corresponds with Kepler and other authorities from the world of science and technology.

His next treatise is Mechanics. Galileo also constructs the world's first telescope, which changes the whole perception of the environment. A serious step in science and further research. At that time, it was a real sensation, and all wealthy people began to massively order telescopes for themselves, because Galileo's stories about the celestial space seen through a telescope looked like a fantastic fiction, and everyone wanted to see it with their own eyes.

Unfortunately, he did not make much money from this, as he was forced to give money as a dowry when his two sisters got married. Galileo finds himself in debt and accepts an invitation to work as an adviser to the Tuscan court from Duke Cosimo II de Medici. So, in the life of a scientist, a turning point comes not at all for the better, as he moves from Venice, in which the Inquisition was powerless, to a less hospitable Florence.

In general, the move to Florence itself did not promise any danger. The work of an adviser was very quiet and calm. But in 1611 the scientist leaves Florence and travels to Rome in order to intercede for Copernicus. He is trying to convince the Pope that the discoveries of Copernicus are a very important and useful contribution to the development of mankind. The priests organized a warm welcome, even approved the recent invention of Galileo - his sensational telescope.

After 2 years, Galileo continues to defend the point of view of Copernicus. He publishes several of his writings, which do not covertly hint that the church is intended to save the soul, and not to make or stop scientific discoveries. This greatly agitated the Roman clergy.

In 1615, Rome openly accuses Galileo of heresy, and a year later completely prohibits heliocentrism. Instead of not heating up the situation, he releases another mockery, after which the Inquisition begins a legal case against Galileo Galilei.

In 1633, the scientist was arrested and put on trial. The death penalty was coming, but it was canceled, given the fact that Galileo is an old and sick man who voluntarily renounced his own discoveries. Most likely, he was tortured to make him do it. One way or another, soon the old scientist was sent to Archetri (on its territory there was a monastery with daughters). The last years of Galileo were spent there under house arrest.

Throughout his life, Galileo was so busy with his discoveries that he practically did not devote time to his personal life. He did not even marry Marina Gamba, although she bore him a son and two daughters.

On January 8, 1642, the world famous scientist died, who made a real revolution in the world of astronomy and physics. He was not properly buried, but in 1737 his ashes were transferred to the Basilica of Santa Croce.

Achievements of Galileo Galilei:

The first astronomer who invented and used the telescope, making discoveries completely unknown at that time. He saw spots on the Sun, mountains on the Moon, moons of Jupiter, stars in the Milky Way, the rotation of the Sun, the phases of Venus, and much more.
He preached the heliocentric system of the world.
He founded experimental physics, laid the foundation for classical mechanics.
Invented not only the telescope, but also the thermometer, microscope, compasses and hydrostatic balances.
Described the law of indestructibility of matter.

Dates from the biography of Galileo Galilei:

1564 - birth.
From 1581 to 1585 - studying at the University of Pisa.
1586 - Invented the hydrostatic balance.
1589 - returns as a professor at the University of Pisa.
1590 - published scientific work "On the movement".
1591 Galileo's father dies.
From 1592 to 1610 he worked at the University of Padua (Venetian period).
1592 - invented the thermometer (at that time it was without a scale).
1602 - Invented the microscope.
1606 - invented the compass.
1609 - Invented the telescope.
1610 - leaves for Florence (1610-1632 - Florentine period).
1611 - visits the Pope for the first time to petition for Copernicus.
1613 - writes works that are designed to protect the interests of Copernicus.
1615 - Roman priesthood accuses Galileo of heresy.
1616 - heliocentrism is prohibited.
From 1633 - arrest, trial, prison, later - house arrest.
1642 - death.

Interesting Galileo Galilei Facts:

When Galileo carefully observed the rings of Saturn, he thought that these were his satellites. This discovery was encrypted as an anagram. Kepler deciphered it incorrectly, deciding that it was about the satellites of the planet Mars.
Galileo himself gave his daughters to the monastery when they were 12 and 13 years old. One of the daughters, Livia, did not want to put up with the fate of the nun, but Virginia accepted this fate humbly.
The grandson of the scientist (the son of his only son) grew up to be a real religious fanatic. He was of the opinion that all the works of his grandfather were heresy, and as a result, he burned all the manuscripts of Galileo.
The Vatican only admitted they were wrong about Galileo in 1981, and agreed that the Earth does indeed revolve around the Sun.

Between Contemporaries was based mainly on the great discoveries he made with the telescope. Indeed, they gave a lot of very important new knowledge about the heavenly bodies, and almost every one of them served as a new proof of the truth of the system. Copernicus. The spots on the illuminated part of the moon, the broken outlines on the edge of the illuminated part of it, viewed through a telescope, turned out to be irregularities on its surface, and Galileo had already compared them with the mountains of our globe. Observing the sun, Galileo discovered spots on it, from the movement of which it became obvious that the sun rotates about its axis. Observing Venus, Galileo saw that it had the same phases as the moon. (Copernicus has already said that it must necessarily be so). Galileo discovered the satellites of Jupiter, and made a lot of observations on them in order to determine the law of their rotation around their planet; he realized that the time differences shown by clocks at different longitudes when observing the eclipse of one or another satellite of Jupiter can serve to determine the difference in these longitudes, and he tried to compile such tables of the movements of the satellites of Jupiter that would have the accuracy necessary for this determination. The Dutch government understood the importance of this allowance for navigation and asked Galileo not to quit work until it was completed; but death ended it before the end.

Galileo discovered the ring of Saturn. (With the weakness of the telescopes through which he made his observations, this ring seemed to be part of the planet itself; that it was separated from it by a distance, he saw only Huygens). Galileo's discoveries also provided important new knowledge about the stars. He saw that the Milky Way consisted of stars, the faint radiance of which merges for the simple eye into a bright band; in the same way, many of the hazy patches turned out to be composed of stars.

Portrait of Galileo Galilei. Artist D. Tintoretto, ca. 1605-1607

But no matter how brilliant the astronomical discoveries of Galileo, his discoveries in mechanics are no less important; only his works elevated it to the degree of science. He dispelled the former erroneous notions about the law of motion, found true ideas about it. Aristotle's false opinions about the essence of motion, while remaining dominant, greatly interfered with the disclosure of the laws of motion. The concepts of Archimedes were the only grounds for inferring truth. Guido Ubaldi and the Dutch mathematician Stevin already took the positions of Archimedes as the basis of their works and expanded some of them. But confused, completely erroneous concepts of movement continued to dominate. Before Galileo, there were almost no attempts at all to consider the facts of motion from a mathematical point of view. Galileo laid a solid foundation for mechanics with his research on the motion of falling and ejected bodies, on the swing of a pendulum, and on the fall of a body along an inclined plane. The laws of motion, found by him and based on the concept of free fall acceleration, became the initial truths for all subsequent studies of the mechanical order of natural phenomena. Without Galileo's discoveries in mechanics, Newton's discoveries would hardly have been possible.

Galileo's students continued his work. One of them, Casteli (born in 1577, died in 1644), successfully applied to the movement of water the concepts developed by Galileo about the general laws of motion and thanks to this he successfully fulfilled the order given to him by Urban VIII to regulate the course of the rivers of the papal state. Another disciple of Galileo, Toricelli(born in 1618, died in 1647) became famous for the discovery that air has gravity; this eliminated the erroneous opinion that nature does not tolerate emptiness (horror vacui).

To tell in detail about everything that the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei enriched science with. He proved himself in mathematics, and in astronomy, and in mechanics, and, and in.

Astronomy

G. Galileo's main merit to astronomy is not even in his discoveries, but in the fact that he gave this science a working tool - a telescope. Some historians (in particular, N. Budur) call G. Galileo a plagiarist who appropriated the invention of the Dutchman I. Lippershney. The accusation is unfair: G. Galileo knew about the Dutch "magic pipe" only from the Venetian envoy, who did not report on the design of the device.

G. Galileo himself guessed about the structure of the pipe and designed it. In addition, I. Lippershney's tube gave a threefold increase, which was not enough for astronomical observations. G. Galileo managed to achieve an increase of 34.6 times. With such a telescope it was possible to observe celestial bodies.

With the help of his invention, the astronomer saw the Sun and guessed from their movement that the Sun was rotating. He observed the phases of Venus, saw the mountains on the Moon and their shadows, from which he calculated the height of the mountains.

G. Galileo's pipe made it possible to see the four largest satellites of Jupiter. G. Galileo called them Medici stars in honor of his patron Ferdinand Medici, Duke of Tuscany. Subsequently, they were given others: Callisto, Ganymede, Io and Europa. The significance of this discovery for the era of G. Galileo is difficult to overestimate. There was a struggle between supporters of geocentrism and heliocentrism. The discovery of celestial bodies revolving not around the Earth, but around another object, was a serious argument in favor of the theory of N. Copernicus.

Other sciences

Physics in the modern sense begins with the works of G. Galileo. He is the founder of the scientific method, which combines experiment and its rational comprehension.

This is how he studied, for example, the free fall of bodies. The researcher found that the weight of a body does not affect its free fall. Along with the laws of free fall, the movement of a body along an inclined plane, inertia, a constant period of oscillation, and the addition of movements. Many ideas of G. Galileo were subsequently developed by I. Newton.

In mathematics, the scientist made a significant contribution to the development of probability theory, and also laid the foundations of set theory, formulating the "Galilean paradox": there are as many natural numbers as their squares, although most of the numbers are not squares.

inventions

The telescope is not the only device designed by G. Galileo.

This scientist was the first, however, devoid of a scale, as well as a hydrostatic balance. The proportional compass, invented by G. Galileo, is still used in drawing. Designed by G. Galileo and a microscope. He did not give a large increase, but he was suitable for studying insects.

The influence exerted by G. Galileo's discoveries on the further development of science was truly fateful. And A. Einstein was right when he called G. Galileo "the father of modern science."

Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa to the musician Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati. In 1572 he moved with his family to Florence. In 1581 he began to study medicine at the University of Pisa. One of Galileo's teachers, Ostilio Ricci, supported the young man in his passion for mathematics and physics, which affected the further fate of the scientist.

Galileo was unable to graduate from the university due to his father's financial difficulties and was forced to return to Florence, where he continued to study science. In 1586, he completed work on the treatise "Little Scales", in which (following Archimedes) he described the device he invented for hydrostatic weighing, and in the next work he gave a number of theorems regarding the center of gravity of paraboloids of revolution. Assessing the growth of the scientist's reputation, the Florentine Academy chose him as an arbitrator in a dispute about how the topography of Dante's Hell (1588) should be interpreted from a mathematical point of view. Thanks to the assistance of his friend the Marquis Guidobaldo del Monte, Galileo received an honorary but meagerly paid position as professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa.

The death of his father in 1591 and the extreme constraint of his financial situation forced Galileo to look for a new job. In 1592 he received the chair of mathematics in Padua (in the possession of the Venetian Republic). After spending eighteen years here, Galileo Galilei made the discovery of the quadratic dependence of the fall path on time, established the parabolic trajectory of the projectile, and also made many other equally important discoveries.

In 1609, Galileo Galilei, modeled on the first Dutch telescopes, made his own telescope, capable of creating a threefold zoom, and then designed a telescope with a thirtyfold zoom, magnifying one thousand times. Galileo was the first person to point a telescope at the sky; what was seen there meant a real revolution in the concept of space: the Moon turned out to be covered with mountains and depressions (previously the surface of the Moon was considered smooth), the Milky Way - consisting of stars (according to Aristotle - this is a fiery evaporation like a comet tail), Jupiter - surrounded by four satellites (their rotation around Jupiter was an obvious analogy to the rotation of the planets around the Sun). Galileo later added to these observations the discovery of the phases of Venus and sunspots. He published the results in a book that was published in 1610 under the title The Starry Herald. The book brought Galileo European fame. The well-known mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler enthusiastically responded to it, the monarchs and the higher clergy showed great interest in the discoveries of Galileo. With their help, he received a new, more honorable and secure position - the post of court mathematician of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1611, Galileo visited Rome, where he was admitted to the scientific "Academy dei Lincei".

In 1613, he published a work on sunspots, in which he spoke for the first time quite definitely in favor of the heliocentric theory of Copernicus.

However, to proclaim this in Italy at the beginning of the 17th century meant to repeat the fate of Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake. The central point of the controversy that arose was the question of how to combine facts proven by science with passages from the Holy Scriptures that contradict them. Galileo believed that in such cases the biblical story should be understood allegorically. The church attacked the theory of Copernicus, whose book On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (1543), more than half a century after its publication, was on the list of banned publications. A decree to this effect appeared in March 1616, and a month earlier, the chief theologian of the Vatican, Cardinal Bellarmine, suggested to Galileo that he no longer defend Copernicanism. In 1623, Galileo's friend and patron Maffeo Barberini became pope under the name of Urban VIII. At the same time, the scientist published his new work - "Assay Master", which examines the nature of physical reality and methods for studying it. It was here that the famous saying of the scientist appeared: "The Book of Nature is written in the language of mathematics."

In 1632, Galileo's book "Dialogue on the Two Systems of the World, Ptolemaic and Copernican" was published, which was soon banned by the Inquisition, and the scientist himself was summoned to Rome, where he was awaited by the court. In 1633, the scientist was sentenced to life imprisonment, which was replaced by house arrest; he spent the last years of his life without a break in his estate Arcetri near Florence. The circumstances of the case are still unclear. Galileo was accused not just of defending the theory of Copernicus (such an accusation is legally untenable, since the book passed papal censorship), but of violating an earlier ban from 1616 "not to discuss" this theory in any form.

In 1638, Galileo published in Holland, in the Elseviers publishing house, his new book "Conversations and Mathematical Proofs", where in a more mathematical and academic form he presented his thoughts on the laws of mechanics, and the range of problems considered was very wide - from statics and strength of materials to the laws of motion of the pendulum and the laws of fall. Until his death, Galileo did not stop active creative work: he tried to use the pendulum as the main element of the clock mechanism (Christian Huygens soon followed him), a few months before he became completely blind, he discovered the vibration of the moon, and, already completely blind, dictated the last thoughts on the theory of impact to his students - Vincenzo Viviani and Evangelista Torricelli.

In addition to his great discoveries in astronomy and physics, Galileo went down in history as the creator of the modern method of experimentation. His idea was that in order to study a particular phenomenon, we must create some ideal world (he called it al mondo di carta - "the world on paper"), in which this phenomenon would be maximally freed from extraneous influences. This ideal world is further the object of a mathematical description, and its conclusions are compared with the results of an experiment in which the conditions are as close as possible to ideal ones.

Galileo died at Arcetri on January 8, 1642, after a debilitating fever. In his will, he asked to be buried in the family tomb in the Basilica of Santa Croce (Florence), but due to fears of opposition from the church, this was not done. The last will of the scientist was fulfilled only in 1737, his ashes were transported from Arcetri to Florence and buried with honors in the church of Santa Croce next to Michelangelo.

In 1758, the Catholic Church lifted the ban on most works supporting the theory of Copernicus, and in 1835 excluded On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres from the index of banned books. In 1992, Pope John Paul II officially admitted that the church had made a mistake by condemning Galileo in 1633.

Galileo Galilei had three children born out of wedlock to the Venetian Marina Gamba. Only the son of Vincenzo, who later became a musician, was recognized by the astronomer as his own in 1619. His daughters, Virginia and Livia, were sent to a convent.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

Details Category: Stages of development of astronomy Posted on 09/19/2012 16:28 Views: 19562

“Exceptional fortitude was required to extract the laws of nature from specific phenomena that were always before everyone’s eyes, but the explanation of which nevertheless eluded the inquisitive gaze of philosophers,” the famous French mathematician and astronomer Lagrange wrote about Galilee.

Discoveries of Galileo Galilei in astronomy

In 1609, Galileo Galilei independently built his first telescope with a convex lens and a concave eyepiece. At first, his telescope gave a magnification of about 3 times. Soon he managed to build a telescope, giving a magnification of 32 times. The term itself telescope also introduced into science by Galileo (at the suggestion of Federico Cesi). A number of discoveries made by Galileo with a telescope contributed to the approval heliocentric system of the world, which Galileo actively promoted, and the refutation of the views of the geocentrists Aristotle and Ptolemy.

Galileo's telescope had one converging lens as an objective, and a diverging lens served as an eyepiece. Such an optical scheme gives an uninverted (terrestrial) image. The main disadvantages of the Galilean telescope are the very small field of view. Such a system is still used in theatrical binoculars, and sometimes in homemade amateur telescopes.

Galileo made the first telescopic observations of celestial bodies on January 7, 1610. They showed that the Moon, like the Earth, has a complex relief - covered with mountains and craters. Known since ancient times, Galileo explained the ashen light of the Moon as the result of sunlight reflected by the Earth hitting it. All this refuted Aristotle's teaching about the opposition of "earthly" and "heavenly": the Earth became a body of the same nature as the heavenly bodies, and this served as an indirect argument in favor of the Copernican system: if the other planets move, then it is natural to assume that the Earth also moves. Galileo also discovered libration Moon (its slow oscillation) and quite accurately estimated the height of the lunar mountains.

The planet Venus appeared to Galileo in the telescope not as a brilliant point, but as a bright crescent, similar to the moon.

The most interesting thing was the observation of the bright planet Jupiter. Through the telescope, Jupiter seemed to the astronomer no longer a bright point, but rather a large circle. Near this circle in the sky there were three stars, and a week later Galileo discovered the fourth star.

Looking at the picture, one might wonder why Galileo did not immediately discover all four satellites: after all, they are so clearly visible in the photograph! But we must remember that Galileo's telescope was very weak. It turned out that all four stars not only follow Jupiter in its movements across the sky, but also revolve around this large planet. So, four moons were found at Jupiter at once - four satellites. Thus, Galileo refuted one of the arguments of the opponents of heliocentrism: the Earth cannot revolve around the Sun, since the Moon revolves around it. After all, Jupiter obviously had to revolve either around the Earth (as in the geocentric system) or around the Sun (as in the heliocentric system). Galileo observed the period of revolution of these satellites for a year and a half, but the accuracy of the estimate was achieved only in Newton's epoch. Galileo suggested using observations of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites to solve the most important problem of determining longitude at sea. He himself was unable to develop an implementation of this approach, although he worked on it until the end of his life; Cassini (1681) was the first to succeed, however, due to the difficulties of observing at sea, Galileo's method was used mainly by land expeditions, and after the invention of the marine chronometer (mid-18th century), the problem was closed.

Galileo also discovered (independently of Fabricius and Harriot) sunspots(dark areas on the Sun, the temperature of which is lowered by about 1500 K compared to the surrounding areas).

The existence of spots and their constant variability refuted Aristotle's thesis about the perfection of the heavens (as opposed to the "sublunar world"). Based on their observations, Galileo concluded that The sun rotates around its axis, estimated the period of this rotation and the position of the axis of the sun.

Galileo also established that Venus changes phases. On the one hand, this proved that it shines with the reflected light of the Sun (about which there was no clarity in the astronomy of the previous period). On the other hand, the order of phase change corresponded to the heliocentric system: in Ptolemy's theory, Venus, as the "lower" planet, was always closer to the Earth than the Sun, and "full Venus" was impossible.

Galileo also noted the strange "appendages" of Saturn, but the opening of the ring was prevented by the weakness of the telescope. 50 years later, the ring of Saturn was discovered and described by Huygens, who had a 92x telescope at his disposal.

Galileo argued that when observed through a telescope, the planets are visible as disks, the apparent dimensions of which in various configurations change in such a ratio as follows from the theory of Copernicus. However, the diameter of the stars during observations with a telescope does not increase. This disproved the estimates of the apparent and real size of the stars, which were used by some astronomers as an argument against the heliocentric system.

The Milky Way, which to the naked eye looks like a continuous glow, was revealed to Galileo in the form of individual stars, which confirmed Democritus' conjecture, and a huge number of previously unknown stars became visible.

Galileo wrote the book Dialogue Concerning the Two Systems of the World, in which he explained in detail why he accepted the system of Copernicus and not Ptolemy. The main provisions of this dialogue are as follows:

• Venus and Mercury never find themselves in opposition, which means that they revolve around the Sun, and their orbit passes between the Sun and the Earth.
• Mars has opposition. From the analysis of changes in brightness during the movement of Mars, Galileo concluded that this planet also revolves around the Sun, but in this case the Earth is located inside its orbits. He made similar conclusions for Jupiter and Saturn.

It remains to choose between two systems of the world: the Sun (with planets) revolves around the Earth or the Earth revolves around the Sun. The observed pattern of planetary motions is the same in both cases, which guarantees principle of relativity formulated by Galileo himself. Therefore, additional arguments are needed for the choice, among which Galileo cites greater simplicity and naturalness of the Copernican model (however, he rejected Kepler's system with elliptical orbits of the planets).

Galileo explained why the earth's axis does not rotate when the earth revolves around the sun; To explain this phenomenon, Copernicus introduced a special "third motion" of the Earth. Galileo showed by experience that the axis of a freely moving top keeps its direction by itself("Letters to Ingoli"):

“A similar phenomenon is evidently found in any body that is in a freely suspended state, as I have shown to many; yes, and you yourself can verify this by placing a floating wooden ball in a vessel with water, which you will take in your hands, and then, stretching them out, begin to rotate around yourself; you will see how this ball will rotate around itself in the opposite direction to your rotation; it will complete its full revolution at the same time as you complete yours."

Galileo made a serious mistake, believing that the phenomenon of tides proves the rotation of the Earth around its axis. But he gives other serious arguments in favor of the daily rotation of the Earth:

• It is difficult to agree that the entire Universe makes a daily revolution around the Earth (especially given the enormous distances to the stars); it is more natural to explain the observed picture by the rotation of one Earth. The synchronous participation of the planets in the daily rotation would also violate the observed pattern, according to which the farther the planet is from the Sun, the slower it moves.
• Even the huge Sun has axial rotation.

To prove the rotation of the Earth, Galileo suggests mentally imagining that a cannon shell or a falling body deviates slightly from the vertical during the fall, but his calculation shows that this deviation is negligible.

Galileo also made the correct observation that the rotation of the Earth must influence the dynamics of the winds. All these effects were discovered much later.

Other Achievements of Galileo Galilei

He also invented:

• Hydrostatic balance for determining the specific gravity of solids.
• The first thermometer, still without a scale (1592).
• Proportional compass used in drafting (1606).
• Microscope (1612); with it, Galileo studied insects.

The circle of his interests was very wide: Galileo was also engaged in optics, acoustics, color theory and magnetism, hydrostatics(science that studies the balance of liquids), resistance of materials, problems of fortification(military science of artificial closures and barriers). Tried to measure the speed of light. He empirically measured the density of air and gave a value of 1/400 (compare: Aristotle has 1/10, the true modern value is 1/770).

Galileo also formulated the law of the indestructibility of matter.

Having become acquainted with all the achievements of Galileo Galilei in science, it is impossible not to be interested in his personality. Therefore, we will tell about the main stages of his life path.

From the biography of Galileo Galilei

The future Italian scientist (physicist, mechanic, astronomer, philosopher and mathematician) was born in 1564 in Pisa. As you already know, he is the author of outstanding astronomical discoveries. But his adherence to the heliocentric system of the world led to serious conflicts with the Catholic Church, which made his life very difficult.

He was born into a noble family, his father was a famous musician and music theorist. His passion for art was also passed on to his son: Galileo was engaged in music and drawing, and also had a literary talent.

Education

He received his primary education in the monastery closest to his home, he studied all his life with great eagerness - at the University of Pisa he studied medicine, at the same time he was fond of geometry. He studied at the university for only about 3 years - his father could no longer pay for his son's studies, but the news of the talented young man reached the highest officials, he was patronized by the Marquis del Monte and the Tuscan Duke Ferdinand I of Medici.

Scientific activity

Galileo later taught at the University of Pisa and then at the more prestigious University of Padua, where his most prolific academic years began. Here he is actively engaged in astronomy - he invents his first own telescope. The four satellites of Jupiter he discovered, he named after the sons of his patron Medici (now they are called the Galilean satellites). Galileo described the first discoveries with the telescope in the essay “The Starry Messenger”, this book became a real bestseller of its time, and the inhabitants of Europe hastily acquired telescopes for themselves. Galileo becomes the most famous scientist in Europe, odes are composed in his honor, where he is compared with Columbus.

During these years, Galileo enters into a civil marriage, in which he has a son and two daughters.

Of course, such people, in addition to adherents, always have enough ill-wishers, Galileo did not escape this either. Especially ill-wishers were outraged by his propaganda of the heliocentric system of worlds, because a detailed justification for the concept of the Earth's immobility and refutation of hypotheses about its rotation was contained in Aristotle's treatise "On the Sky" and in Ptolemy's Almagest.

In 1611, Galileo decided to go to Rome to convince Pope Paul V that the ideas of Copernicus were fully compatible with Catholicism. He was well received, he showed them his telescope, giving careful and circumspect explanations. The cardinals created a commission to find out if it was a sin to look at the sky through a trumpet, but they came to the conclusion that it was permissible. Roman astronomers openly discussed the question of whether Venus moves around the Earth or around the Sun (the change in the phases of Venus clearly spoke in favor of the second option).

But denunciations to the Inquisition began. And when Galileo in 1613 Galileo published the book "Letters on Sunspots", in which he openly spoke in favor of the Copernican system, the Roman Inquisition began the first case against Galileo on charges of heresy. The last mistake of Galileo was the call to Rome to express its final attitude towards the teachings of Copernicus. Then the Catholic Church decided to ban his teaching with the explanation that " the church does not object to the interpretation of Copernicanism as a convenient mathematical device, but accepting it as a reality would mean admitting that the previous, traditional interpretation of the biblical text was erroneous».

March 5, 1616 Rome officially defines heliocentrism as a dangerous heresy. The book of Copernicus was banned.

The church ban on heliocentrism, in the truth of which Galileo was convinced, was unacceptable to the scientist. He began to think about how, without formally violating the ban, to continue the defense of the truth. And I decided to publish a book containing a neutral discussion of different points of view. He wrote this book for 16 years, collecting materials, honing his arguments and waiting for the right moment. Finally (in 1630) it was finished, this book - "Dialogue about the two main systems of the world - Ptolemaic and Copernican" , but was published only in 1632. The book is written in the form of a dialogue between three lovers of science: a Copernican, a neutral participant and an adherent of Aristotle and Ptolemy. Although there are no authorial conclusions in the book, the strength of the arguments in favor of the Copernican system speaks for itself. But in the neutral participant, the Pope recognized himself and his arguments and was furious. A few months later, the book was banned and withdrawn from sale, and Galileo was summoned to Rome for the trial of the Inquisition on suspicion of heresy. After the first interrogation, he was taken into custody. There is an opinion that torture was used against him, that Galileo was threatened with death, he was interrogated in the torture chamber, where terrible tools were laid out before the eyes of the prisoner: leather funnels through which a huge amount of water was poured into the human stomach, iron boots (they screwed legs of the tortured), tongs that broke bones ...

In any case, he was faced with a choice: either he would repent and renounce his "delusions", or he would suffer the fate of Giordano Bruno. He could not bear the threats and retracted his work.

But Galileo remained a prisoner of the Inquisition until his death. He was strictly forbidden to talk to anyone about the motion of the Earth. Nevertheless, Galileo secretly worked on an essay in which he asserted the truth about the Earth and the heavenly bodies. After the verdict, Galileo was settled in one of the Medici villas, and five months later he was allowed to go home, and he settled in Arcetri, next to the monastery where his daughters were. Here he spent the rest of his life under house arrest and under the constant supervision of the Inquisition.

Some time later, after the death of his beloved daughter, Galileo completely lost his sight, but continued his scientific research, relying on faithful students, among whom was Torricelli. Only once, shortly before his death, the Inquisition allowed the blind and seriously ill Galileo to leave Arcetri and settle in Florence for treatment. At the same time, under pain of prison, he was forbidden to leave the house and discuss the "damned opinion" about the movement of the Earth.

Galileo Galilei died on January 8, 1642, at the age of 78, in his bed. They buried him in Archetri without honors, the Pope also did not allow him to erect a monument.

Later, the only grandson of Galileo also took the monastic vows and burned the priceless manuscripts of the scientist that he kept as ungodly. He was the last representative of the Galilean family.

Afterword

In 1737, the ashes of Galileo, as he requested, were transferred to the Basilica of Santa Croce, where on March 17 he was solemnly buried next to Michelangelo.

In 1835, books that advocated heliocentrism were struck off the list of banned books.

From 1979 to 1981, at the initiative of Pope John Paul II, a commission for the rehabilitation of Galileo worked, and on October 31, 1992, Pope John Paul II officially recognized that the Inquisition had made a mistake in 1633, forcing the scientist to renounce the theory of Copernicus by force.