Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei

the famous Italian physicist, engineer and astronomer

Who is he?

Family…

Galileo Galilei was born on 15 February 1564 in Pisa, Italy.

There were six children in a family of Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati and he was the eldest. Only four children of their family survived. 

For a time he lived in a shelter of the monastery in Florence

At the age of 17 Galileo Galilei entered the University of Pisa where he studied medicine. He also was interested in mathematics, astronomy and mechanics. In 1589 he became a professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa. From 1592 to 1610 he began to teach mathematics, astronomy and mechanics at the University of Padua.

Career

Galileo is often called the founder of modern science. He made many discoveries in astronomy and physics and he built telescopes to study space.

In 1609 Galileo constructed his first telescope. He used it to observe the stars and the planets. He saw things that nobody had ever seen before. Galileo discovered that the moon's surface was not smooth and flat, like everyone thought.

In January 1610 Galileo discovered 4 moons revolving around the Jupiter. They were named after him, the Galilean moons.

In 1633 Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment

But because of poor health, he was under house arrest

He spent the last years of his life in Florence, where he continued to work on his theories and even published a final book.

in 1642 he died

History tells us that after the death of the tooth was removed and 3 fingers, one of which is located in the National Museum of Florence