When Galileo Galilei used a new invention called the telescope to watch the heavens, he revolutionized astronomy. But his estimates of the distances to the stars were thousand of times too short. A ...

Italian scientist Galileo Galilei was not the first person to claim Earth orbited the sun. But he was the first who could prove it. His observations made through a home-made telescope changed the ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I cover the history of science and exploration. On this night in 1609, astronomer Galileo Galilei trained his telescope on the ...

Despite the summer heat, the Senate of Venice assembled on this day in 1609 to view a remarkable scientific instrument. It was built by the well-known astronomer and philosopher from Pisa, Galileo ...

A brilliant Italian scientist, mathematician and astronomer, Galileo Galilei knew, as few others did in his time, that the Earth revolved around the sun. And when he refused to be silent about it, he ...

Albert Einstein once said that the work of Galileo Galilei “marks the real beginning of physics.” And astronomy, too: Galileo was the first to aim a telescope at the night sky, and his discoveries ...

As a young man, Galileo Galilei considered becoming a painter. He acquired extensive knowledge of perspective from Ostilio Ricci, the court mathematician in Florence, who later taught at the ...