Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

The scientific revolution can be dated as having begun in 1543, coincidentally, the year in which Nicolaus Copernicus published his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. Although many early cosmologies contemplated the motion of the earth around an inert sun, it wasn't until Copernicus's book that people actually started to support it. His book introduced heliocentrism in a whole new way. Copernicus's book presented a fully predictive mathematical model of a heliocentric system, which was later elaborated by Johannes Kepler and defended by Galileo Galilei, becoming the center of a major religious dispute.

Before the scientific revolution, the geocentric model of the universe was accepted by everyone. The geocentric theory is that the earth is the center of the universe and the sun and all the other planets went around it. This theory was adopted by both Aristotle and Ptolemy.

Galileo Galilei was known as the man to pioneer the "experimental scientific method" and was also the first to use a refracting telescope to make important astronomical discoveries. Galileo, by learning the merest description of the telescope, built a bigger and better model. Using his telescope, Galileo made significant discoveries about space, the planets and their moons. Galileo was a professor of astronomy in the University of Pisa, he was required to teach the theory of geocentrism. But later, in the University of Padua, he learnt of a new theory, Copernicus's theory. Galileo used his telescope and observed that that theory was the correct one. His support for this theory got him in trouble with the roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic Church were very powerful during the 17th century and they still believe that the sun revolved around the earth. Galileo, spreading peoples awareness of heliocentrism aggravated them. The Roman Catholic church called him to Rome for trial. Inquisition convicted him of heresy and forced him to publicly withdraw his support to Copernicus's theory. He was also sentenced to life imprisonment, but due to his old age he was allowed to serve his time as house arrest in his villa in Arcetri. Galileo died at Arcetri in 1642. In 1992, the Roman Catholic Church admitted to having been wrong in dealing with Galileo.