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Galileo's first major discovery came in 1609. He had heard about a spyglass made by a Dutchman. This inspired him to build the first astronomical telescope. With this telescope, a refractor, he became the first person to see Jupiter's moons. The fourmoons he discovered are now called the Galilean moons. Galileo's major contribution to the study of physics was the discovery that all bodies fall at the same rate regardless of their mass. This is the law of falling bodies, and it revolutionized physics, for it was the first break from the Aristotlean ideas of motion. Galileo was persecuted by the religious leaders of his time, made to recant his theories, and placed under house arrest until he died. |