Galileo was an Italian physicist and astronomer who initiated the scientific revolution that flowered in the work of the English physicist Sir Isaac Newton. Born Galileo Galilei, his main contributions were, in astronomy, the use of the telescope in observation and the discovery of sunspots, lunar mountains and valleys, the four largest satellites of Jupiter, and the phases of Venus. In physics, he discovered the laws of falling bodies and the motions of projectiles. In …
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…philosophical and theological interference stands beyond science. Since the full publication of Galileo's trial documents in the 1870s, entire responsibility for Galileo's condemnation has customarily been placed on the Roman Catholic Church. This conceals the role of the philosophy professors who first persuaded theologians to link Galileo's science with heresy. Pope John Paul II opened an investigation into the astronomer's condemnation, calling for its reversal, in 1979. In October 1992 a papal commission acknowledged the Vatican's error.