Galileo Galilei | The inventor of telescope | History | CBSE |

Galileo. Born in 1564 in Italy, Galileo was called the father of modern science for his far-reaching discoveries. A notable one is the first law of motion of Newton, who worked on Galileo's law of inertia. His field of work included astronomy, mathematics, physics, engineering, and natural philosophy. He is best known for the invention of the telescope and the theory of heliocentrism. He went a step further than Copernicus, who was tortured for the theory that the sun was the center of the universe and that planets, including the moon and the earth, revolved around it. Though he is credited with the invention of the telescope, the truth is that this idea he got was from Dutch spectacle makers and he developed it further. Galileo was the first to discover the four moons in Jupiter and they are named Galileo's moons. America launched an unmanned spacecraft in his name to honor him. Similarly, Europe had a satellite system of civil navigation named after him. Another interesting feature was his invention of the military compass and a thermometer. Einstein named him as his favorite scientist and worked to go ahead with his discoveries using the work of Galileo. He was blind by the time he died and probably many more observations and discoveries were lost to mankind because of this disability.