Long long ago people believed that the earth was fixed in the space and the sun and all other heavenly bodies went round it.
Galileo Galilei a great scientist and astronomer, first brought to light the facts that the earth revolved around the sun.
He was bom in 1564 at Pisa, Italy. In 1608 Lippershey invented a telescope which magnified objects several times over. Then an Italian scientist Galileo developed the telescope and made a telescope which brought objects thirty times nearer. Later the king of Venice, appointed him, Professor for life at the Univesity of Padua.
With the aid of this telescope, he made important discoveries about the heavenly bodies. He found that Jupiter had little moon that revolved round it. He found that sun had spots upon it.
Some fifty years earlier, Copernicus, a Polish astronomer had declared that the Earth was a planet but he could not prove this. Galileo realized that Copernicus was correct. Galileo taught this at the university which led to many confusions and he got into trouble with the church.
The inquisition asked him to declare that the earth did not move round the sun. He knelt down and made a public declaration about this, but as he rose from his knees, he whispered to himself, “But still it does move”.
The court ordered him not to teach this wicked ideas any more. But Galileo did not obey the churchs orders for long. He was again tried as a nonbeliever. After a long trial, he was sent to prison, considering his age he was sent home after 22 days.
