Galileo’s Astronomical
Discoveries and
Observation
Galileo Galilei
-A Renaissance Italian astronomer,used the
telescope to observe the cosmos,his discoveries
provided evidence to prove it disprove the existing
Greek beliefs and models of the universe
The Ptolemaic Model of the universe posed that the
Earth is stationary,the center of the universe,and
that the stars,planets,and the sun revolve around it.
Galileo’s astronomical observation helped weaken
the Ptolemaic Model by showing that the
Star,Planets and Sun do not revolve around the
Earth through his observation of (The Phases of
Venus and The Moons of Jupiter)
Phases of Venus
* Galileo observed that the brightest
planet ,Venus,as seen from the earth.behaved
similarly like the moon.He noticed that Venus has a
systematic change in shadows and lightning,just like
the Lunar phase.
* Galileo observed that Venus is in its “new phase”
when it is between the Earth and the sun and waxes
as it move in its orbit.During this phase ,we cannot
see Venus because no light from the sun is reflected
toward us.Venus is in its “full phase”when the sun is
between Venus and Earth.It is still not visible from
the Earth because sun blocking it.
Through this observation Galileo disproved that the
other planets revolve around the Earth.
Moons of Jupiter
* Prior to use of telescopes,the satellites or moons of
Jupiter were unknown.When Galileo observed
Jupiter,He noticed that there were planet-like bodies
close to it.He first noted that there were four bodies
moving around Jupiter .After some time one of them
disappear and ‘hid’ behind Jupiter.He later named
the bodies or satellites as
Io,Callisto,Ganymede,Europa
The discovery of the moons of Jupiter disprove
Ptolemaic Model by showing that not everything
revolves around the Earth
Sunspots
Supernovas
•Greek philosophers have
Before Galileo concrentized the concept expressed the Sun as a source of
of Supernovas,scientists have already light,but no other information about
observed new stars appearing in the it is available at the same time.
sky.These are called Stellar Nova or new
stars.In 1604,Johannes Kepler , A -Observers back then just thought
German Astronomer,observed a nova in
that the spots found on the sun are
Prague.This nova was called a
Supernova because the nova exuded
planets.Galileo clarified this idea.
enormous amount of light in just a short He observed the movement of the
period indicating that it was exploding. It sunspots and noticed that one spot
was also labeled as Kepler’s Nova took approximately 14 days to
travel from one side to the other
•at that time,Kepler was working as a
mathematician at imperial court and as while maintaining its constant
Galileo was also a mathematician,they speed.
were able to compare their data of their
observation of the said nova all over From this observation he was able
Europe. They measured the parallax of to to deduce that the Sun also
the nova from different locations.Galileo’s
rotates on an axis
•A parallax is the angle that can be
measured when an observer looks at the
same object from different locations.The
greater the distance between the two
locations,The greater the parallax and the
closer the object is to the observer the
greater the parallax.Galileo and Kepler
Sets of data showed that there were no
measurable parallax from the nova and
the fixed stars which means that they
were at immeasurable distances from the
earth even farther than the moon.These
observation were able to show that the
sky is changing
Lunar Craters
•Ancient Greeks assumed that the moon
had a smooth surface
-Galileo discovered that the surface of the
moon was uneven and rough.He also
observed that it had high points (mountain
and hills) and low points (trenches and
ditches)