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Posts Tagged ‘galileo’

Galileo and the Inquisition

Friday, September 28th, 2018

September 28, 2018

A recently rediscovered letter from Italian  astronomer  Galileo (1564-1642) shows his careful wording to try to avoid persecution during the Inquisition, an effort by the Roman Catholic Church to seek out and punish heretics—that is, people who held beliefs that differed from the accepted beliefs of the church. In the letter—found in a London library where the letter was misplaced decades ago—Galileo states his arguments against the church’s mistaken doctrine that the Sun orbits Earth.

Galileo was a famous Italian astronomer and physicist. Justus Sustermans painted his portrait in 1636, when Galileo was about 72 years old. At that time, the scientist was writing about his life's work on motion, acceleration, and gravity. Credit: Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy (Art Resource)

A rediscovered letter by the famous Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo shows he tempered his comments to try to avoid persecution by the Roman Catholic Church. Credit: Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy (Art Resource)

The seven-page letter, written to a friend in 1613 and signed G.G. in Galileo’s own hand, helps solve a mystery that has surrounded the astronomer ever since the Roman Catholic Church condemned him for heresy in 1633. The letter shows that Galileo knew he may have dangerously provoked powerful enemies in the church and that he worked to contain the potential fallout.

Galileo Galilei is one of the most significant figures in the history of western scientific thought. In 1609, Galileo built his first telescope. Turning it to the sky, he saw clear evidence that many ideas about the heavens, established since the time of ancient Greece and Rome, were false. He was convinced of the truth of the theory, proposed by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543, that all planets, including Earth, revolve around the sun. However, this theory contradicted official doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church.

Historians had known that in December 1613, Galileo wrote a letter to his friend Benedetto Castelli, a mathematician at the University of Pisa. In this letter, he discussed how the Copernican theory compared with official church doctrine concerning astronomy. Galileo wrote thousands of letters in his lifetime and many included important scientific discoveries, so people often made copies that were widely circulated. In 1615, one of Galileo’s enemies sent a copy of the 1613 letter to church inquisitors in Rome. The inquisitors sought out and severely punished heretics. In early 1616, Galileo was summoned to Rome to face the inquisitors and discuss whether the Copernican theory conflicted with the Roman Catholic faith.

Several copies of the 1613 letter exist today, although there are two different versions—one that was sent to Rome and another that is less provocative. Some historians suspect clergymen may have forged one version to anger the inquisitors, causing them to charge Galileo with heresy. Galileo sometimes complained to friends about such plots against him.

The rediscovered original letter shows that Galileo altered his words to make them less provocative. Many words and phrases are scratched out and rewritten with a softer tone that inquisitors would have found more agreeable. For example, Galileo referred to certain parts in the Bible as “false if one goes by the literal meaning of the words.” He crossed through the word false, and replaced it with the phrase, look different from the truth. Galileo’s ploy worked. In 1616, he was cleared of charges of heresy. But he was also ordered not to hold, teach, or defend the Copernican theory in any way.

In 1632, Galileo finished his most complete work on the structure of the heavens. It was a book called the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. In this work, the information presented clearly indicated the superiority of the Copernican system. Once again, Galileo was summoned to Rome. This time, he had to answer to the charge of willfully disobeying the order not to defend Copernicus’s theory. In 1633, the Inquisition found Galileo guilty of the charge. The church forced him to recant (publicly withdraw his statement) and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Because of Galileo’s advanced age and poor health, the church allowed him to serve his imprisonment under house arrest in a villa outside Florence. He died on Jan. 8, 1642.

Tags: astronomy, galileo, inquisition, nicolaus copernicus, roman catholic church
Posted in Current Events, History | Comments Off

Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede Mapped in Glorious Color

Friday, February 14th, 2014

February 14, 2014

The wildly complicated surface of Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, appears in colorful detail in a new map published by the United States Geological Survey. The map is based on images taken by NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, which flew by Jupiter and its moons in 1979, and the Galileo probe, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. The map is the first global geologic map of Ganymede, Jupiter’s seventh moon, or any other icy moon, for that matter.

Ganymede, also Jupiter’s largest moon, is bigger than the planet Mercury and almost as large as Mars. Ganymede is one of four Jovian moons discovered by the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei in 1610. From observations using Earth-based telescopes and orbiting spacecraft, scientists have long known that Ganymede’s icy surface is made up of almost equal amounts of dark and light material. A thin ocean of salty water may lay about 105 miles (170 kilometers) below the surface. The presence of water makes Ganymede and the other large moons of Jupiter—along with Mars—prime candidates in the search for extraterrestrial life.

The false colors in a new map of Ganymede reveal geologic features created during different times in the moon's history. (USGS Astrogeology Science Center/Wheaton/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The new false-color map, which was created by a team of scientists headed by Geoffrey Collins of Wheaton College in Massachusetts, provides the first solid evidence for three major geological periods in the moon’s history. During the oldest period, represented in brown, asteroids and comets bombarded the surface, leaving many impact craters. Forces released by the biggest impacts also created large cracks in the moon’s crust. Lighter colors on the map represent two somewhat younger periods. During one of these, changes in the temperature of the moon caused the surface to expand and crack. The new terrain (land) created by these tectonic forces was marked with parallel sets of ridges and valleys. During the third period, geologic activity declined. As the crust settled, new ridges and valleys appeared.

Additional articles in World Book:

  • Callisto
  • Europa
  • Io
  • Satellite (Satellites of the gas giants)
  • Probing the Planets (a Special Report)
  • The Thirty-Year Journey of Voyagers 1 & 2 (a Special Report)

 

 

Tags: galileo, ganymede, jupiter, moon, satellite, solar system, voyager 1, voyager 2
Posted in Current Events, Science, Space | Comments Off

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