Darwin denounced divine creation and Galileo denounced Earth-centric cosmology. The conflict between science and religion has been an ongoing tug-of-war since time immemorial. And Galileo (1564-1642) was a pioneer in the battle.

It’s been four centuries since Galileo - the father of modern science - stargazed in Padua, Italy with his telescope, the main reason 2009 has been chosen as the International Year of Astronomy. His findings single-handedly changed the way we looked at humanity itself.

It dawned on the human race that Earth was never the Center of the Universe. Never had a scientific instrument shattered such established convictions before.

Galileo was a Tuscan, Italian astronomer, physicist, mathematician, inventor, and philosopher. He was sent to University of Pisa to study medicine but opted to study mathematics.

He later became Professor and Chair of Mathematics at the University. Until about 1609 he taught mathematics. He taught astronomy, geometry, and military engineering and had become widely known as a brilliant lecturer.

 Although Galileo made an immense contribution to modern science with his telescope experiments the earliest record of the telescope comes from the Netherlands, in 1608. But it was the further development of this original invention by Hans Lippershey, Zacharias Janssen and Jacob Metius, by Galileo Galilei that set in motion one of the greatest scientific revolutions of all times.

Against a backdrop of constant rivalry between the church and the scholars, Galileo opted for a subtler method to tweak the intelligence of the rich and powerful by hosting the world's first stargazing parties, in Piazza San Marco in Venice and elsewhere. It's said that a picture is worth a thousand words. For the first time people saw the true splendor of the universe - that the universe was not as perfect as their religious leaders claimed.

By 1610 he had discovered three of Jupiter's moons and eventually a fourth now called Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The moons are also known as the Galilean Satellites today, in honor of their discoverer. Other discoveries by Galileo include the phases of Venus, lunar mountains and craters and that the Milky Way was '...a mass of innumerable stars...'

Galileo's findings confirmed Copernicus' model of a heliocentric Solar System - that all the planets were revolving around the Sun and not the Earth as it was originally believed, to the Church's outrage.

By 1633 he was tried and convicted and a ban was imposed on the publication of any of his works. He ultimately had to die while still under house arrest. Galileo always believed that 'the purpose of the Church is not to determine how the heavens go, but to determine how to go to heaven.'

While philosophers before him wrecked their brains over 'why' things moved he worked to find 'how' things moved. Galileo firmly believed that the secrets of the universe could be unveiled only through the universal language of mathematics. In spite of the Church's attempt to stifle curiosity and discourage further research into astronomy many - like Isaac Newton - followed in Galileo's footsteps.

Galileo proved that the Earth is not distinct from the universe, but part of it, through his experiments using his telescope with a magnification of 32 times. Today telescopes hundred million times more sensitive than Galileo's exist; the Hubble Space Telescope is one such example. But the underlying blueprint has remained the same since 1608, a legacy left behind by the legendary pioneer stargazer.

- Sajitha

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