GALILEO GALILEI

Galileo Galile was born in 1564 in the city of Pisa, Italy. About twenty years later he attended the University of Pisa. At the first, he wanted to become a doctor, but while he was there he became interested in Science and decided to became a scientist. In 1592, a year after his father’s death, the University of Padua invited him to be a professor of Mathematics. He stayed there for 19 years, where he became interested in the stars. He made an instrument which made far away things look larger and easier to examine. This way called the telescope. It could make things look thirty-two times as big as they looked the eye. Galileo could see many stars through his telescope and began to study the stars and other things in the sky.

He studied the moon first and discovered that it was a sphere just like our own earth, with mountains and valleys. When he studied the stars, he discovered that the “stars” which moved, were not   really stars, but worlds like the earth. He prove that Copernicus was right;  the earth and the planets indeed moved around the sun. Galileo also discovered that one big planet Jupiter, had four moons, but he made a mistake by naming them planets.

Galileo discovered many other things too. It is because of Galileo that we now have clocks and watches. He also wrote many important books which opened the way to the discovery of new things. Unfortunately, in 1637 he lost his eye-sight. However, he continued to work until the passed away on January 8, 1642.  

Taken from: English for Senor High School Book 1