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The Crime Of Galileo Galilei - Biography

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Bianca
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« Reply #45 on: January 24, 2009, 08:19:39 am »









                                                             Italy fetes Galileo



                                   Events mark 400th aniversary of Italian's breakthroughs






 (ANSA)
- Florence,
January 15, 2009

- A wave of events marking 400 years since Galileo Galilei's first landmark observations of the night sky kicks off here on Thursday, part of global celebrations for the International Year of Astronomy (IYA).

The two-day official launch of IYA takes place in Paris but Tuscany will play a special part in the yearlong initiative as the birthplace and home of the 'father of modern science'.

Speaking at the official inauguration ceremony, the president of Italy's National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), Tommaso Maccacaro, said the decision to hold the IYA in 2009 was perfect. ''There can be no doubt that 2009 was the right year to celebrate astronomy as it is exactly 400 years since Galileo made his first observations by telescope,'' said Maccacaro. ''These observations revolutionized our culture and our conception of the role of humankind within the universe''. The Tuscan initiatives will include the opening of a new museum, guided observations of the night sky, the laying of a marker stone commemorating the scientist and three exhibitions, part of 12-million-euro 'Galileo Package'. The biggest show of the year is a multimedia event at Florence's Palazzo Strozzi, opening in March, entitled 'Galileo: Images of the Universe from Antiquity to the Telescope'.

This will examine the history of conceptions of the cosmos, with archaeological finds, scientific instruments, star maps, drawings, paintings and precious manuscripts from around the world.

''The multidisciplinary nature of this show and the use of different multimedia will provide an absolutely first-rate experience for visitors,'' said Florence museum superintendent, Cristina Acidini.

''It will bring to life the instruments and models used by scientists that have studied the sky and the planets over the years''.

Outside Italy, a series of international events have been lined up for the IYA.

April 2-5 will see '100 Hours of Astronomy', an event bringing together people from around the world to observe and share astronomical events during a 100-hour period.

'Galileoscope', running all year round, aims to give 10 million people their first look through an astronomical telescope in 2009. It will do this by encouraging amateur astronomers to introduce others to the experience and by developing a simple telescope that is easy to assemble and use, which can be distributed for free.

'Universe Awareness' will introduce kids from deprived backgrounds to ''the scale and beauty of the Universe'', teaching them about the background of modern astronomy and trying to spark an interest in science. IYA will also see the launch of 'The Portal To The Universe' website, containing a host of news, photographs, videos and information open to everyone, allowing users to tap and share live data.

Galileo (1564-1642) created his first telescope in 1608, based on descriptions from the Netherlands where the device was invented.

He initially produced a lens able to magnify objects threefold and soon after created a lens with a magnification of 32.

This put him in a nearly unique position, as he was one of the few people at the time with a lens powerful enough to observe the sky.

He started making regular recorded observations in 1609 and in 1610, discovered three of Jupiter's moons. He initially thought they were stars but observing their changing position, soon concluded they were orbiting Jupiter.

Galileo later used his powerful telescope to observe the various phases of Venus.

Both sets of observations played a crucial role in his conclusion that the sun was at the centre of the universe, rather than the Earth, as was commonly believed at the time.

Church opposition to Galileo's sun-centred model flared up immediately in 1612 and would dog Galileo for the rest of his life.

In 1633 he was tried and convicted of heresy and a ban was imposed on the publication or reprinting of any of his works. He was then placed under house arrest, where he spent the remaining nine years of his life.
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« Reply #46 on: January 24, 2009, 08:21:34 am »










                                Scientists to solve astronomical riddle using Galileo DNA






     
Mon Jan 19, 2009
ROME
(AFP)

– Italian scientists are trying to get Galileo's DNA in order to figure out how the astronomer forged groundbreaking theories on the universe while gradually becoming blind, a historian said Monday.

Scientists at Florence's Institute and Museum of the History of Science want to exhume the body of 17th Century astronomer Galileo Galilei to find out exactly what he could see through his telescope.

The Italian astronomer -- who built on the work of predecessor Nicolaus Copernicus to develop modern astronomy with the sun as the centre of the universe -- had a degenerative eye disease that eventually left him blind.

"If we succeed, thanks to DNA, in understanding how this disease distorted his sight, it could bring about important discoveries for the history of science," said the institute's director, Paolo Galluzzi.

"We could explain certain mistakes that Galileo made: why he described the planet Saturn as having 'lateral ears' rather than having seen it encircled by rings for example," said Galluzzi.

In an effort to recreate what Galileo -- who lived from 1564 to 1642 -- saw, the scientific team has made an exact replica of his telescope.

They now want to get DNA proof of what ophthalmologists have said was a genetic eye disease and thereby more fully understand the conditions under which he made observations that revolutionised our understanding of the cosmos.

It will take the team one year to raise the 300,000 euros (390,000 dollars) needed to finance the project and clear administrative hurdles to open Galileo's tomb in Florence's Santa Croce Basilica, Galluzzi said.

The United Nations proclaimed 2009 the International Year of Astronomy, marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's observations.

In 1609, he discovered spots on the Sun, craters and peaks on the surface of the Moon and satellites orbiting Jupiter, thereby confirming Copernicus's theory that planets orbit the Sun rather than the Earth.
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« Reply #47 on: January 24, 2009, 08:22:45 am »

 
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« Reply #48 on: January 24, 2009, 08:37:06 am »








                                 Astronomers view heavens through Galileo's eyes



                              Replica 'scope celebrates four centuries of heliocentrism






By Lester Haines
Posted in Space,
The Register
8th January 2009

Astronomers are celebrating 400 years since Galileo made his famous observations, which were fundamental in proving the heliocentric hypothesis, by pointing a replica of one of his original telescopes at the heavens to recreate his original stargaze.

In 1609, Galileo critically discovered four satellites orbiting Jupiter, which removed "major doubt about the heliocentric model - namely that the Earth appeared at the centre of things because only it had a satellite", as Physics World puts it.

Galileo's contribution to science was made possible by the invention of the telescope in the Netherlands in 1608, which he improved for use as an astronomical instrument. Now, scientists from the Institute and Museum of the History of Science and the Arcetri Observatory, both in Florence, have built a replica of one of his 'scopes and are "using it to generate the images that, to the best of their estimations, Galileo himself would have seen".

In fact, the telescope is not a replica of the instrument used to make the historic observations which appeared in 1610 in the Sidereus Nuncius (“Starry Messenger”), since only one lens survives. Rather, it's an "exact replica of the device that Galileo gave to his patron the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II, in about 1610" - a 93cm-long device boasting two lenses and a magnification factor of around 20.
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« Reply #49 on: January 24, 2009, 08:39:11 am »




               








The Arcetri Observatory then constructed the instrument's body, behind which the team placed a 2300 × 3400 pixel CCD to generate "digital versions of the images that would form on the retina of a human eye placed behind the telescope".

The ultimate plan is to observe all of the bodies which appear in the Sidereus Nuncius. So far, the team has spied the Moon and Saturn, and has now turned its attention to Jupiter’s moons and the phases of Venus. The latter also proved instrumental in backing the heliocentric hypothesis by disproving the Ptolemaic assertion that "we would never see more than half of the surface of Venus illuminated by sunlight".

In carrying out its observations, the team has overcome the problems of modern light pollution and the relatively low sensitivity of the CCD compared to the human eye by finding "a suitable location in the hills beyond the city" of Florence and placing the 'scope on a rotating mount to allow "an exposure of several seconds", respectively.

The astronomers' efforts to recreate exactly what Galileo saw has, though, hit a slight occular snag. Physics World explains: "The researchers also want to work out what Galileo’s eye would have done with those images. And for that, they need access to his body."

Paolo Galluzzi, director of the Florence museum, explained: “We know that Galileo died blind, so he must have had visual problems. We want to look at his DNA to try and work out what these problems were.”

Unfortunately, the rector of Florence's Basilica of the Holy Cross, where Galileo's remains lie, is apparently none too keen on his tomb being opened. Galluzzi is described as "determined" to press the matter, and insisted: “Building the replica telescope and acquiring the digital images are the first two parts of the project. Understanding the physiology of Galileo’s eye is the third part. If we can achieve this, then we will be in a position to really understand how Galileo viewed the universe.”

The researchers' images will, Physics World notes, appear online at some stage. Whether or not they have been adjusted to take into account the state of Galileo's eyesight in 1609 remains to be seen. ®





Bootnote


This year is officially "International Year of Astronomy" - principally designed to "mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the telescope for astronomical observations", but also hoping to "generate interest in astronomy and science, especially in young people". Physics World has further details and event listings at the bottom of its Galileo 'scope piece.
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« Reply #50 on: January 24, 2009, 08:40:41 am »









                                       Let the global astronomy celebrations begin






Jan. 5, 2009

The International Year of Astronomy marks the 400th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei. As the 2009 celebrations kick off, Edwin Cartlidge explains how one of Galileo’s telescopes is being rebuilt by researchers in Italy, while Michael Banks looks at some of the events taking place this year


StargazingOf the many achievements of Galileo Galilei, among the most famous is a series of astronomical observations that he started in 1609 and announced in March 1610 in a publication entitled Sidereus Nuncius (“Starry Messenger”). These included radical new views of the Moon and the stars, as well as the discovery of four satellites orbiting Jupiter. By removing a major doubt about the heliocentric model — namely that the Earth appeared at the centre of things because only it had a satellite — the observation of the Jovian moons led to a new view of the universe and in the process brought Galileo considerable fame.

What had made these observations possible was the telescope. Invented in the Netherlands in 1608 (although there have been claims that it was first built a few years earlier), the telescope was initially seen as a useful new aid to warfare. However, once news of the device spread south, Galileo was able to use his considerable skills as an instrument maker to multiply the magnifying power of the basic spyglass so that he could use it as an astronomical tool.

Now, staff at the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy, together with the Arcetri Observatory, also in Florence, have built a replica of one of Galileo’s telescopes and are using it to generate the images that, to the best of their estimations, Galileo himself would have seen. The aim, explains museum curator Giorgio Strano, is to understand exactly what Galileo observed and how he made his observations. “We are trying to distinguish precisely between what Galileo was potentially able to see ‘objectively’ with the telescope and what was, instead, the product of physiological, psychological and cultural factors,” he says.
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« Reply #51 on: January 24, 2009, 08:42:18 am »









The Moon, Saturn and beyond



The telescope being built by the Florence team is not actually a replica of the one used by Galileo to make the observations he reported in Sidereus Nuncius. It is likely, instead, that these results were obtained using a telescope with a magnification of about 30. What the team is building is an exact replica of the device that Galileo gave to his patron the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II, in about 1610. The 93 cm long instrument consists of two lenses — a converging one, the objective, and a diverging one, the eyepiece — that can magnify distant objects by up to a factor of about 20. Whereas this more modest instrument has survived intact, sadly the only part that remains of the more powerful device is the objective lens, making it impossible to remake.

Reproducing Cosimo II’s telescope has involved a painstaking investigation of the original lenses — with the National Institute of Applied Optics in Florence having measured their shape and refractive index, and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Florence using X-ray fluorescence to determine the composition of the glass. The Arcetri Observatory, on the other hand, built a mechanical structure to house the lenses and regulate the distance between them. This structure was then linked up to a charge coupled device of 2300 × 3400 pixels, which transforms incoming photons to electrical signals and thereby generates digital versions of the images that would form on the retina of a human eye placed behind the telescope. The plan is to make these images accessible online.

Astronomers at the Arcetri Observatory are now using this apparatus to image all the objects recorded in Sidereus Nuncius and in other works by Galileo. The Moon and Saturn have already been observed, and these observations have demonstrated the effects of chromatic aberration in Galileo’s instrument. The focal length of a lens depends on the wavelength of light passing through it, so in practice it is impossible to bring white light to a precise focus, and this defocusing can be seen in the images of Saturn and of the Moon.

Arcetri Observatory director Francesco Palla says that he and his colleagues are now obtaining images of Jupiter’s moons and the phases of Venus, which provided another crucial piece of evidence in favour of the heliocentric hypothesis (with the Ptolemaic alternative incorrectly maintaining that we would never see more than half of the surface of Venus illuminated by sunlight). The researchers are also observing the Pleiades and Orion star fields, which Galileo found had scores of stars in addition to the few already known at that time. Sunspots permitting, observations will also be made of the changing face of the Sun — a hammer blow against the idea of the immutability of the heavens when originally revealed by Galileo.
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« Reply #52 on: January 24, 2009, 08:44:02 am »








The Galilean eye



Michele Camerota, a historian of science at the University of Cagliari in Italy, believes that the observing project will provide a valuable source of new data on the performance of Galileo’s telescopes and that it will permit an “extremely faithful” reconstruction of what Galileo saw. However, performing these observations has proved tricky. Aside from having to work with a very limited field of view (Galileo’s combination of convex objective and concave eyepiece producing a field of view of about one quarter of a degree), the researchers in Florence have also struggled to find somewhere dark enough to observe Jupiter — Arcetri nowadays being swamped by light from the city.




Moonstruck


Having eventually found a suitable location in the hills beyond the city, Palla and colleagues then had to introduce what he describes as an “inevitable trick” in order to observe the Jovian moons. Because the moons reflect so little sunlight, their imaging requires an exposure of several seconds, during which time they move appreciably across the sky. The telescope therefore needs to be placed on a rotating mount in order to track the moons — a problem that Galileo would not have encountered because the eye can make do with less light than a CCD needs.

However, even when all of the imaging has been completed, the project will not be over. That is because to work out what Galileo saw it is not enough to simply find out what kind of images his telescope created. The researchers also want to work out what Galileo’s eye would have done with those images. And for that, they need access to his body. “We know that Galileo died blind, so he must have had visual problems,” says Paolo Galluzzi, director of the Florence museum. “We want to look at his DNA to try and work out what these problems were.”

Galluzzi does not yet have permission to open Galileo’s tomb, which lies in the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Florence, because the basilica’s rector opposes such a move. But Galluzzi is determined to keep trying. “Building the replica telescope and acquiring the digital images are the first two parts of the project,” he says. “Understanding the physiology of Galileo’s eye is the third part. If we can achieve this, then we will be in a position to really understand how Galileo viewed the universe.”
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« Reply #53 on: January 24, 2009, 08:45:32 am »











IYA2009: a taste of things to come



January marks the start of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) as designated by the United Nations, and endorsed by UNESCO — its body responsible for education, science and culture. IYA2009 is intended to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the telescope for astronomical observations.

The aim of the initiative is to generate interest in astronomy and science, especially in young people, under the central theme of “The universe, yours to discover”. I

YA2009 is a global celebration of astronomy with more than 100 countries involved in preparing activities.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) and UNESCO are coordinating events throughout the year, which are happening regionally, nationally and internationally. National events can be found at the IYA2009 individual country websites.

Although this list is not exhaustive, here is a sample of what is coming up around the world during the year. Meanwhile, Physics World will be publishing a special astronomy issue in March, and there will be additional astronomy coverage on physicsworld.com throughout 2009.
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« Reply #54 on: January 24, 2009, 08:46:55 am »



           

             2009

             INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF ASTRONOMY










                                                                        Cosmic diary






International Year of AstronomyAll year round, worldwide
www.iya2009.org
Professional astronomers around the world will be blogging about their day to day activities and what it is like to be an astronomer. Researchers from NASA, the European Space Agency and the European Southern Observatory will be blogging as part of this project

Portal to the universe
All year round, worldwide
www.portaltotheuniverse.org
A website built for IYA2009 will feature rolling news, new images taken by telescopes, blogs by astronomers, and videos, as well as links to other astronomy websites. It will also contain a directory of observatories, facilities and astronomical societies.

IYA2009 opening ceremony
15–16 January, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris
Hundreds of people are expected to attend the official launch, such as government ministers and Nobel-prize winners, including Robert Wilson, who shared one half of the 1978 prize with Arno Penzias for the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation. There will be exhibitions as well as talks by leading figures in astronomy.

Conference on the role of astronomy in society and culture
19–23 January, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris
Examining the relationship that astronomy has established with different cultures around the world. There will also be an accompanying art exhibition.

GLOBE at night
16–28 March, worldwide
This project lets students, teachers and parents take part in a global campaign to observe and record the magnitude of visible stars to measure light pollution in a given location. After the observations are collected, a map will be produced showing the levels of light pollution around the world.

100 hours of astronomy
2–5 April, worldwide
One of the cornerstone projects of IYA2009, this event will try to make as many people as possible use a telescope and look up the stars.

International Astronomy Day
2 May, worldwide
Local astronomical societies, planetariums, museums and observatories will be giving presentations and workshops to help increase public awareness about astronomy.

IAU general assembly
3–14 August, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Leading astronomers will head to Brazil for a two-week conference to discuss everything from dark matter and galaxy clusters to whether the fundamental constants change with time.
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« Reply #55 on: January 24, 2009, 08:50:02 am »










Kepler’s heritage in the space age
24–27 August, Prague, Czech Republic
Celebrating the 400th anniversary of the publication of Johannes Kepler’s 1609 book Astronomia Nova, in which he provided the formulation of the first two laws of planetary motion in the solar system. The conference at the National Technical Museum in Prague celebrates Kepler’s contribution to astronomy.

Astronomy and its instruments before and after Galileo
28 September – 3 October, Venice, Italy
The conference will examine at how astronomical instruments have changed with time and the differences between countries when exploring the universe.

Great worldwide star count
9–23 October, worldwide
This event encourages everyone to go outside, look skywards after dark, count the stars they see in certain constellations, and then report their findings online.

European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC) conference
25–31 October, Alexandria, Egypt
The SEAC, which includes archaeologists, historians and astronomers as its members, will meet to discuss the practice, use and meaning of astronomy in culture.






About the author



Edwin Cartlidge is a freelance science writer based in Rome.

Michael Banks is news editor of Physics World



http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/37157
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« Reply #56 on: January 24, 2009, 08:52:42 am »









                                           Is that two moons around Saturn I see?







Philip Pullella
– Thu Jan 22, 2009
Reuters
ROME

– Italian and British scientists want to exhume the body of 16th century astronomer Galileo for DNA tests to determine if his severe vision problems may have affected some of his findings.

The scientists told Reuters on Thursday that DNA tests would help answer some unresolved questions about the health of the man known as the father of astronomy, whom the Vatican condemned for teaching that the earth revolves around the sun.

"If we knew exactly what was wrong with his eyes we could use computer models to recreate what he saw in his telescope," said Paolo Galluzzi, director of the Museum of History and Science in Florence, the city where Galileo is buried.

Galileo, who lived from 1564 to 1642, is known to have had intermittent eye problems for the second half of his life and was totally blind for his last two years.

"There were periods when he saw very well and periods when he did not see very well," said Dr. Peter Watson, president of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis and consultant to Addenbrooke's University Hospital, Cambridge.

Watson, who has studied Galileo's handwriting, letters and portraits of the astronomer, suspects he may have had unilateral myopia, uveitis -- an inflammation of the eye's middle layer -- or a condition called creeping angle closure glaucoma.

Watson believes Galileo did not acquire his eye problems by looking at the sun but by systemic illnesses, including an attack when he was young that left him temporarily deaf and bloody discharges and arthritis so severe he was bedridden for weeks.

He was under particular stress when he was tried for heresy by the Inquisition because the Copernican theory he supported conflicted with the Bible.
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« Reply #57 on: January 24, 2009, 08:54:03 am »











ERROR OF A GENIUS?



One of the "errors" that Galileo made, which Galluzzi suspects may have been attributed to his bad eyesight, is that he believed Saturn was not perfectly round but may have had an irregular, inflated side.

With his 20-power telescope and with his eyes in bad shape he might have mistaken Saturn's gaseous ring to surmise that it was formed of one planet with two moons as satellites.

"This was probably a combination of errors. He probably expected to find satellites and his eyesight may have contributed to some confusion," said Galluzzi.

"A DNA test will allow us to determine to what measure the pathology of the eye may have 'tricked' him," he said.

"If we discover the pathology he suffered, we can formulate a mathematical model that simulates the effects it would have had on what he saw and using the same type of telescope he used we can get closer to what he actually saw," Galluzzi said.

"We only have sketches of what he saw. If we were able to see what he saw that would be extraordinary," he added.

Galileo was buried in Florence's Santa Croce Basilica about 100 years after his death. Before, his remains were hidden in a bell tower room because the Church opposed a proper burial.

His bones were stored together with those of one of his disciples, Vincenzo Viviani, and those of an anonymous woman.

Galluzzi and others believe the bones belong to the most beloved of Galileo's three illegitimate children, Sister Maria Celeste, a nun who died when she was 33. She was the subject of the 1999 international bestseller "Galileo's Daughter," by Dava Sobel. DNA would determine if she is his daughter.

Galluzzi said he was waiting for permission from the Church to exhume the body and then would form a committee of historians, scientists and doctors to oversee the project.



(Editing by
Katie Nguyen)
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« Reply #58 on: January 29, 2009, 06:00:46 pm »









                                               Galileo Vatican statue 'shelved'


                                         But 'time is ripe' for 'fresh reconsideration'






 (ANSA)
- Vatican City,
January 29, 2009

- The Vatican has shelved plans to put up a statue to Galileo Galilei, the Italian astronomer famously forced to recant his discovery that the earth moves around the sun.

''The project has been shelved for the moment,'' the Vatican's culture chief Msgr Gianfranco Ravasi told reporters as he outlined events for World Astronomy Year.

Confirming press reports, Ravasi said a preparatory sketch for the statue had been made before it was decided not to make the statue.

He did not elaborate on the decision apart from saying that there was a sponsor who was then told to spend the money on a scientific project in Africa.

The statue to Galileo was to have stood outside the Pontifical Academy of Science, according to reports. Ravasi went on to say that the Church was ready to ''further reconsider the Galileo case'', 17 years after Pope John Paul II admitted it had erred in condemning him.

''The time is now ripe for a fresh reconsideration of the figure of Galileo and the whole Galileo case,'' he said, presenting a conference that will take place in Florence later this year.

''Galileo deserves all our appreciation and gratitude,'' Ravasi said.

The conference, entitled The Galileo Case, An Historical, Philosophical and Theological Re-reading, will take place at Florence's Stensen Institue on May 26-30.

Galileo (1564-1642), is regarded as the father of modern astronomy.

He created his first telescope in 1608 and discovered three of Jupiter's moons and the various phases of Venus.

The two sets of observations played a crucial role in his conclusion that the sun was at the centre of the universe, rather than the Earth, as was commonly believed at the time.

Church opposition to Galileo's sun-centred model flared up immediately in 1612 and would dog Galileo for the rest of his life.

In 1633 he was tried and convicted of heresy and a ban was imposed on the publication or reprinting of any of his works. He was then placed under house arrest, where he spent the remaining nine years of his life as the world returned to the comfortable idea of an immovable earth.

Galileo is said to have muttered the famous phrase 'Eppure si muove' (''But it does move'') as he left his trial.

In 1992, after a 13-year reconsideration of the case, Pope John Paul II admitted that the Church had made a ''tragic mistake'' in rejecting Galileo's heliocentric views.

But he also exculpated the astronomer's chief accuser, who was later canonised, as only doing his duty.

Pope Benedict XVI, who succeeded John Paul in 2005, last year had to cancel a visit to Rome University after a protest by academics against his defence, while still a cardinal, of Galileo's trial.

Speaking in Parma in 1990, Benedict said the trial was ''reasonable and just''.
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« Reply #59 on: March 15, 2009, 11:28:21 am »










                                                 Galileo telescope recreated



                                Murano glassmakers help reproduce exact copy of lens






 (ANSA)
- Rome,
February 25, 2009

- A team of astronomers, scientists and historians have recreated the original telescope used by Galileo Galilei, allowing them to see the night sky through the eyes of the 17th-century astronomer for the first time.

The interdisciplinary team from Florence's Museum of the History of Science and the national institutes of applied optics, nuclear physics and astrophysics spent two years reconstructing the telescope for the International Year of Astronomy, which marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's landmark discoveries.

The team worked with the Experimental Glass Station in Murano to recreate the exact composition of the glass for the lense of the telescope Galileo created and described in his 1610 treatise Sidereus Nuncius ('Starry Messenger'), where he also recorded his first observations.

''It was immediately clear that the telescope is not at all easy to use,'' said Giorgio Strano of the Museum of the History of Science.

Francesco Palla, director of the National Institute of Astrophysics' Arcetri Observatory, said the team's astronomers had nevertheless ''almost finished'' observations of the celestial objects that Galileo would have seen in 1609 using the replica.

''We have observed the moon, the satellites of Jupiter and the phases of Venus,'' Palla said, adding that the Pleiades star cluster and the constellation of Orion had also been studied.

All of the images observed with the replica telescope will be transferred to digital format and published online by the end of the year. Galileo (1564-1642) created his first telescope in 1608, based on descriptions from the Netherlands where the device was invented.

He initially produced a lens able to magnify objects threefold and soon after created a lens with a magnification of 32.

This put him in a nearly unique position, as he was one of the few people at the time with a lens powerful enough to observe the sky.

He started making regular recorded observations in 1609 and discovered three of Jupiter's moons in 1610. He initially thought they were stars but observing their changing position, soon concluded they were orbiting Jupiter.

Galileo later used his powerful telescope to observe the various phases of Venus.

Both sets of observations played a crucial role in his conclusion that the sun was at the centre of the universe, rather than the Earth, as was commonly believed at the time.

Church opposition to Galileo's sun-centred model flared up immediately in 1612 and would dog Galileo for the rest of his life.

In 1633 he was tried and convicted of heresy and a ban was imposed on the publication or reprinting of any of his works. He was then placed under house arrest, where he spent the remaining nine years of his life.

A host of initiatives has been planned this year to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy in Italy and abroad.
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