Galileo Galilei (1564～1642) was a great astronomer, mechanics, philosopher, physicist and mathematician in the late Italian Renaissance. He is also a pioneer in modern experimental physics and is known as the "Father of Modern Science". At the age of 17, he entered the University of Pisa to study medicine, and later switched to mathematics. After graduation, he became a university professor. He was an indomitable warrior for the truth. Engels called him "one of the giants who was able to break old theories and create new ones regardless of obstacles." Born in Pisa on February 15, 1564 and died in Pisa on January 8, 1642. Galileo's family name is Galilei (Galilei), and his full name is Galileo Galilei, but he is now commonly called by his first name, Galileo, instead of his surname. Due to translation problems, there are different opinions on the surname, but Galileo Galilei prevails.
Life
Galileo Galileo was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa, a city on the western coast of Italy. He was originally from Florence and came from a declining aristocratic family. Galileo's father was a failed musician, proficient in Greek and Latin, and also quite accomplished in mathematics. Therefore, Galileo received a good family education from an early age.
At the age of twelve, Galileo entered the monastery of Vallombrosa near Florence to receive a classical education. At the age of seventeen, he entered the University of Pisa to study medicine, while also concentrating on physics and mathematics. Due to family financial difficulties, Galileo left the University of Pisa without receiving his diploma. Despite the difficult environment, he still persisted in scientific research, studied many works of Euclid and Archimedes, conducted many experiments, and published many influential papers, thus receiving great attention from the academic community at that time. , known as the "Contemporary Archimedes".
Galileo was taught mathematics at the University of Pisa when he was 25 years old. Two years later, Galileo lost his job because of his famous experiment on the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which angered the church. After Galileo left the University of Pisa, he went to Venice to teach at the University of Padua in 1592, where he remained until 1610. This period was Galileo's golden age in scientific research. Here, he made numerous achievements in mechanics, astronomy and other aspects.
In 1610, Galileo published his work in the form of a popular book, named "The Starry Messenger". This book was published in Venice, which caused a sensation in Europe at the time and won Galileo high praise. of honor. Galileo was hired as "court philosopher" and "court chief mathematician", and he returned to his hometown of Florence.
Galileo continued his scientific research at the court in Florence, but his astronomical discoveries and his astronomical writings clearly reflected the Copernican heliocentric view. As a result, Galileo began to attract the attention of the church. Beginning in 1616, Galileo began to be brutally persecuted by the Roman Inquisition for more than 20 years.
Galileo's later life was extremely miserable. His daughter Celeste, who took care of him, died before him. The grief of losing his beloved daughter made Galileo blind. Even under such conditions, he still did not give up his scientific research work.
At 4 o'clock in the morning on January 8, 1642, the great Galileo, a warrior who fought for science and truth all his life, passed away at the age of 78. On the eve of his death, he repeated this sentence: "The pursuit of science requires special courage."
On February 15, 1564, Galileo was born in a declining noble family in the city of Pisa on the west coast of Italy. Home. It is said that his ancestor was a very famous doctor in Florence, but by the generation of his father Galileo Fansandu, the family situation was declining. Fansandu was a very talented composer. He published several pastoral and instrumental works during his lifetime. He was also good at mathematics and was proficient in Greek and Latin. However, beautiful music could not fill the belly of his family. His mathematics Talent cannot get him a good position. About not long after little Galileo was born, Fansandu opened a small shop selling woolen fabrics in Florence, not far from Pisa. This was completely a last resort. But in order to maintain the life of his family, Fansandu had to go into business against his will.
Little Galileo was the eldest son of Fansandu, and his father had great hopes for his son. He found that little Galileo was very smart and had been full of strong curiosity about everything since he was a child. Not only that, this child was very clever and he seemed to never be idle. He was either painting pictures or playing the piano, and he often did many clever things for his younger brothers and sisters. Motorized toy, fun to play with.
Little Galileo initially entered the school of the Florentine monastery. In this school, he concentrated on studying philosophy and religion. For a while, little Galileo wanted to be a missionary dedicated to the church in the future. But after Fansandu heard about this situation, he immediately took his son home. He persuaded Galileo to study medicine, which was a path he had already planned for his son's future. At the age of 17, Galileo entered the famous University of Pisa and became a medical student according to his father's wishes.
The University of Pisa is an old university with a rich collection of books in the school library, which is very suitable for Galileo. However, Galileo did not have much interest in medicine. He rarely attended classes. Once in class, he would raise various questions about the content of the professors' lectures. , making it difficult for the professors to answer. In the eyes of the professors, Galileo was a very unpleasant and bad student. However, Galileo was not interested in medicine. He studied mathematics, physics and other natural sciences tirelessly, and viewed with suspicion those theories that have been regarded as classics since ancient times.
You must know that the era when Galileo lived was the famous Renaissance era in European history, and Italy was the birthplace of the Renaissance. At that time, many large cities in Italy, such as Florence, Genoa and Venice, developed into centers of East-West trade. Business houses, handicraft workshops and the earliest banks were built, and the germination of capitalist production relations appeared. Coupled with the development of trade and the invention of printing, new ideas spread faster than ever before. As a result, people began to waver in the religious theology and traditional dogmas that had bound their minds for thousands of years.
By chance, Galileo listened to a lecture by the court mathematician Matthew Leach. Galileo was deeply fascinated by this young mathematician's profound knowledge, rigorous logic, and especially his method of proving mathematical problems. His eyes lit up, as if he had discovered a magical world. This was the mathematical kingdom he had dreamed of! He was so excited that he immediately found the court mathematician Matthew Leach and asked him many puzzling questions.
Matthew Leach originally came to Pisa from Florence with the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He taught mathematics to the page boys in the palace. He did not expect that there would be an enthusiastic audience, and he proposed The questions are very interesting and fully demonstrate his superior wisdom and profound knowledge.
When Matthew Leach heard that Galileo was a medical student at the University of Pisa, he couldn't help blurting out: "Ah, Galileo, you have a genius, you will become an outstanding mathematician."
Galileo's face turned red. He talked about his boredom with medicine, his father's expectations of him, and his distress because he could not study as he wished.
"Don't be discouraged." Matthew Leach said kindly: "You should study hard on your own. If you have any difficulties, I will be your loyal friend at any time." After listening to Matthew Leach's words Encouraged, Galileo studied mathematics and physics more diligently. He read every book he borrowed from the court mathematicians carefully and absorbed it like a sponge absorbing water. However, he was not the kind of person who was superstitious about books. Those authoritative conclusions that people thought were truths often brought unexpected questions to Galileo's mind. He often felt distressed by this and fell into deep thinking. Once, Galileo strolled to the Cathedral of Pisa, which he was familiar with. He sat on a bench and stared at the beautifully carved altar and arched columns. Suddenly, the giant lamp in the center of the church hall swayed. Home repair workers were there installing chandeliers. This was a normal thing. The chandelier swayed like a pendulum, drawing an invisible arc in the air. However, Galileo followed the swinging chandelier intently as if he had been electrocuted. At the same time, he pressed the pulse of his left wrist with his right hand and counted the number of pulse beats per swing of the chandelier to calculate the time of the swing of the chandelier. As a result of this calculation, Galileo discovered a secret, which is that the time it takes for the chandelier to swing once is always the same regardless of the size of the arc. At first, the chandelier swung vigorously, and gradually it slowed down, but the number of pulse beats was the same every time it swung. Galileo's mind was spinning. He thought, the book clearly stated that a pendulum passes through a short arc faster than a long arc. This is what the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said. No one has Had doubts. Is there something wrong with my eyes or something else. He ran back to his college dormitory like a madman, closed the door and repeated the experiment. He found ropes and chains of different lengths, as well as iron balls and wooden balls that he didn't know where to get. On the roof, on the branches outside the window, I repeat it again and again obsessively, recording the swing time with the hourglass. In the end, Galileo had to boldly conclude that Aristotle's conclusion was wrong. What determines the swing period is the length of the rope and has nothing to do with the weight of the object at its end. Moreover, the vibration periods of pendulum ropes of the same length are the same. This is the law of motion of the pendulum discovered by Galileo. Needless to say, Galileo was very happy. But at that time, who would believe the scientific discovery of a medical student, not to mention that his conclusion denied the authoritative statement of the famous Aristotle. At this time, Fansandu's shop became more and more depressed. He heard that Galileo did not study medicine according to his own wishes, but was obsessed with irrelevant experiments all day long. Therefore, his strict father decided to stop Galileo and continue to go to college. , let him go home and be a clerk. Galileo was so discouraged that he left the University of Pisa and returned to Florence. But the path he chose was unshakable.
Believe in science, on a not-so-busy street in Florence, there is a shop with a small appearance and light business. This is the woolen fabric shop opened by Fansandu.
Every day, when pedestrians pass by here in a hurry, you can always see the red-haired Galileo sitting at the counter in a daze, or playing with some inexplicable things there like scales, iron blocks, and plates as if no one else is around. Yeah; and more often than not, he was immersed in books. He was so focused on reading that he couldn't even hear his father shouting loudly. Since returning home, Galileo had to work as a clerk in his father's shop against his will, but he never forgot mathematics and physics in his heart. Without the minimum learning conditions and no teachers to ask for advice, he tried every means to find some books on natural sciences and studied hard on his own with tenacious perseverance. His favorite books were Euclid's Principles of Geometry and the works of Archimedes. "Principles of Geometry" is the earliest geometric work handed down in the world. The works of the Greek scientist Archimedes contain a wealth of mathematical and mechanical knowledge, especially some of the physical experiments, which were very attractive to Galileo. . When it came to experiments, Galileo was the most interested. While still at the University of Pisa, he started making a "pulse meter", which he designed based on the movement patterns of a pendulum. It could be used to measure the patient's pulse beat and was very popular with doctors. Now, in his father's shop, there are no conditions for experiments, but he still uses some daily utensils to conduct experiments. Although doing so will inevitably be scolded by his father, he still does it. He was inspired by Archimedes' experiment of testing the king's crown. While repeating the experiment, he thought of the use of this method. At that time, the navigation industry in European countries was on the rise. The navigation industry drove the development of shipbuilding, machinery manufacturing, mining, and metallurgy, which in turn raised many new questions for science and technology. Galileo then turned his attention to the study of the physical and mechanical properties of alloys. Soon, he found by measuring the weight of an object in water that the weight lost by an object put into water was exactly equal to the weight of the water it displaced. On the basis of this important discovery, Galileo invented a specific gravity scale that could easily measure the specific gravity of various alloys. He also wrote a paper describing in detail the construction principles and usage of the hydrometer. This incident soon spread in Florence and other cities. In the summer of 1589, Galileo spent four years of self-study in a shop in Florence. With the encouragement of the court mathematician Matteo Leach, and especially the recommendation of the noble Marquis of Getterbotu, he finally obtained a degree in mathematics from the University of Pisa. and science professorships. At this time, he was only 25 years old. Now, Galileo no longer had to worry about life. Although the salary was not high, he could concentrate on the scientific research he yearned for in addition to completing daily teaching. Not long after this, Galileo conducted the free fall experiment introduced at the beginning of this article. The iron ball he dropped from the Leaning Tower of Pisa not only proved that objects of different weights have the same speed when falling from the same height, but more importantly, , this bold conclusion overturned Aristotle’s authoritative conclusion. In the eyes of those conservative and rigid-minded people, this move was tantamount to digging their ancestral graves. Aristotle's followers and Galileo began to be at odds with each other. After a semester at the University of Pisa, Galileo lost his position again. The reason was that he had offended a relative of the Grand Duke, Giovanni. This Giovanni was an uneducated man. He claimed to have invented a dredger and came to ask Galileo for advice. When Galileo carefully observed the model of the dredger, he bluntly told him that the design did not comply with scientific principles and could not be used at all. Giovanni was frustrated. Not only did he not accept Galileo's opinion, but he stubbornly insisted on launching the experiment. As a result, the ship sank. Facts proved that Galileo's judgment was completely correct, but the angry Giovanni turned his anger on Galileo, spreading rumors and attacking him as an "insidious person". Those followers of Aristotle who had been dissatisfied for a long time took the opportunity to attack him violently, causing uproar in the city. In this atmosphere, Galileo could no longer stay at the University of Pisa. Galileo once again turned to the Marquis of Getterbotu for help. This nobleman who cherished talents once again extended a hand of friendship. He used his influence to recommend Galileo to the University of Padua. Padua is a small city with a strong academic atmosphere in northern Italy, not far from the beautiful coastal city of Venice. , under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Venice. In 1592, at the age of 28, Galileo was appointed professor of mathematics, science and astronomy at the University of Padua. From then on, Galileo ushered in a golden age in his life. Galileo invented the telescope and worked at the University of Padua for 18 years. He initially focused on mechanics research, which he had always been interested in. He discovered an important phenomenon in physics - the inertia of object movement; he did the famous inclined plane practice, He summarized the quantitative relationship between the distance an object falls and the elapsed time; he also studied the motion of cannonballs and laid the foundation for the parabola theory; he was also the first to clearly put forward the concept of acceleration: even in order to measure patients The body temperature rises during fever. This famous physicist also invented the first air thermometer in 1593... However, an accidental event caused Galileo to change the direction of his research. He turned from the study of mechanics and physics to the vast expanse of space. It was the winter of 1604. An unusually bright star suddenly appeared in the southern sky. This uninvited guest from the universe attracted the attention of many people, and then mysteriously disappeared in the autumn of the next year.
People can't help but ask a series of questions, what kind of star is this? Where does it come from and where does it go? How do the stars in the night sky move according to what rules? However, no one can answer all these questions clearly. Galileo was observing the mysterious star every night. As long as the weather was clear, he would never miss this golden opportunity. Many questions kept popping up in his mind, and he felt more and more that humans knew too little about the secrets of the universe. However, observation with the naked eye alone was limited after all, and telescopes had not yet been invented at that time. Galileo had been wondering if he could find a way to make people's eyesight sharper and more expanded, so that they could see distant stars clearly like the clairvoyance in mythology? In a blink of an eye, in June 1609, Galileo heard news that Lipaxi, a Dutch spectacle merchant, accidentally discovered that he could see things invisible to the naked eye using a lens in the distance. "Isn't this just the clairvoyance I need?" Galileo was very happy. Soon, one of Galileo's students wrote from Paris, further confirming the accuracy of the news. The letter said that although Lipacci did not know how he did it, the glasses merchant must have made a mirror tube with which objects could be magnified. Many times. "Microscope!" Galileo read the letter over and over again and hurried into his laboratory. He found paper and a goose pen and began to draw diagrams of lens imaging one after another. Galileo was inspired by the tip of the mirror tube. It seems that the secret of the mirror tube's ability to magnify objects lies in the choice of lenses, especially the combination of convex and concave lenses. He found information about lenses and kept making calculations. He forgot about the dusk creeping up the window and how the dawn entered the room. After a whole night, Galileo finally understood that by placing the convex lens and the concave lens at an appropriate distance, just like what the Dutchman saw, distant objects invisible to the naked eye could be seen clearly after magnification. Galileo was very happy. Without taking a break, he immediately started grinding the lenses, which was a time-consuming and careful job. He worked for several days, grinding out a pair of convex lenses and concave lenses, and then made an exquisite double-layer metal tube that could slide. Now, it's time to put his invention to the test. Galileo carefully placed a larger convex lens on one end of the tube, a smaller concave lens on the other end, and then pointed the tube toward the window. When he looked from one end of the concave lens, a miracle occurred. The church in the distance seemed to be right in front of him. He could clearly see the cross on the bell tower, and even a dove that settled on the cross could be seen very realistically. News of Galileo's telescope spread immediately. “The news that I had made a telescope reached Venice,” Galileo wrote in a letter to his brother-in-law: “One week later, I was ordered to present the telescope to the Speaker and the MPs for viewing. They were very surprised. Gentlemen and Although the deputies were very old, they all climbed up to the tallest bell tower in Venice in order and looked at the ships far away in the harbor. They could see clearly. Without my telescope, I couldn't see anything even if I watched for two hours. The effectiveness of this instrument can make objects 50 miles away appear to be within 5 miles." The telescope invented by Galileo has been continuously improved, and its magnification has been increased to more than 30 times, and it can magnify real objects 1,000 times. Now, he seemed to have clairvoyance and could peep into the secrets of the universe. This is an epoch-making revolution in astronomical research. For thousands of years, the era in which astronomers relied solely on naked eyes to observe the sun, moon and stars is over. Instead, optical telescopes have emerged. With this powerful weapon, modern astronomy has The door was opened. Now, every night when the stars are shining or the moon is shining in the sky, Galileo will aim his telescope at the deep and distant sky, observing night after night regardless of fatigue and cold. In the past, people always thought that the moon was a smooth celestial body that emitted its own light like the sun. But Galileo discovered through the telescope that the moon, like the earth we live on, has high mountains and low depressions (Galileo called it a "sea" at the time). He also discovered from the movement of the bright and dark parts of the moon that the moon itself does not emit light. The moon's light comes from the sun.
Galileo pointed the telescope at the Milky Way across the sky. In the past, people had always believed that the Milky Way was a white mist formed by water vapor on the earth. Aristotle believed so. Galileo decided to use a telescope to test whether this statement was correct. He pointed his telescope at the foggy light band in the night sky, and was surprised to find that it was not clouds at all, but thousands of stars gathered together. Galileo also observed the clouds in the sky - commonly known as star clusters, and found that star clusters are also many stars gathered together, such as the Orion cluster, the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus, and the Beehive star cluster.
Galileo's telescope revealed secrets of the universe one after another. He discovered the moons orbiting Jupiter and calculated their orbital periods. We now know that Jupiter has 14 satellites, and those discovered by Galileo are the four largest. In addition, Galileo also used a telescope to observe sunspots on the sun. He inferred from the movement of sunspots that the sun was also rotating.
One exciting discovery after another was enough for Galileo to write a book on the latest astronomical discoveries. He wanted to publish his observation results to the world. In March 1610, Galileo's book "The Star Messenger" was published in Venice, which immediately caused a sensation in Europe.
However, he did not expect that the secrets of the universe revealed by the telescope would greatly offend many people, and a terrible misfortune was about to befall this outstanding scientist.
[Edit this paragraph] Encounter
One day in the winter of 1615, the weather was extremely cold and the sky was covered with gloomy dark clouds. Galileo came to Rome alone. Five years ago, in 1610, Galileo bid farewell to the University of Padua and returned to Florence, where he served as a court mathematician and philosopher in the Principality of Tuscany and concurrently as a professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa. Also in this year, he visited Rome and received a warm reception and high standards of courtesy. His series of new discoveries in astronomy and the invention of the telescope were valued by Pope Paul V, and Roman nobles and scientists were honored to know him. However, only five years later, Rome's face had completely changed. There were no flowers or smiling faces, instead there were indifferent and expressionless faces everywhere. Even familiar people stayed away from him as if they were avoiding the plague.
What happened? It turned out that this time, Galileo's name was on the blacklist of the Roman Inquisition. He was summoned to Rome by the notorious Inquisition to accept his trial.
What crime did Galileo commit? Let’s start from the beginning.
Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries was a critical period in the transformation from feudal society to capitalist society. For a long time, in order to consolidate the order of feudal rule, theocratic Europe replaced science with theology, and replaced freedom with barbarism. Theologians absurdly claimed that the universe was filled with "angels of various degrees and crystal balls within one another," with the motionless earth at the center of these crystal balls. They admire the theory of the ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy that "the earth is the center of the universe", because in the view of theologians, the sun revolves around the earth, and the purpose of God's creation of the sun is to illuminate the earth and be kind to mankind. . This is an eternal and unbreakable truth.
In order to defend this absurd theory, the Catholic Church’s Inquisition did not hesitate to use horrific violence against anyone who dared to raise objections. In 1327, the Italian astronomer Cecco Dascoli was burned alive. His crime was only that the earth was spherical and that humans lived in the other hemisphere. However, he was persecuted for violating the teachings of the Bible. On February 17, 1600, the Italian philosopher Bruno was burned alive in the Piazza del Fiore in Rome because he promoted the Copernican theory everywhere and shaken the geocentric theory.
Galileo was a contemporary of Bruno. As early as when he was teaching at the University of Padua, he had read Copernicus's work "On the Hypothesis of the Movement of Celestial Bodies" (also known as "On the Movement of Celestial Bodies"). ). In this book, this outstanding Polish astronomer boldly proposed the theory that the sun is the center of the solar system and that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun, that is, the heliocentric theory, which aroused great interest in Galileo from the beginning. But Galileo was a scholar with a very serious scientific attitude. He thought, in the past it was said that the sun revolves around the earth, but Copernicus put forward the opposite view. Which one is correct? Galileo did not jump to conclusions. He decided to use his telescope to confirm who was right and who was wrong.
When Galileo's book "The Star Messenger" was published, he was already a strong supporter of Copernicanism. Through his own observations and research, Galileo gradually realized that Copernicus's theory was correct, while Ptolemy's geocentric theory was wrong, and many of Aristotle's views were untenable. Galileo not only published papers refuting Aristotle, but also unabashedly supported Copernicus' theories through letters, and even sent copies of his letters directly to the Roman Church. According to Galileo, the conscience of scientists is to follow the truth.
However, the Holy See would never let Galileo go. They first issued a stern warning to Galileo, and then summoned him to Rome for trial. In February 1616, the Inquisition announced that Galileo was no longer allowed to promote Copernicus's theory, and he was no longer allowed to describe Copernicus's theory as the truth, whether in lectures or writing.
Galileo would not forget that 16 years ago Bruno was burned alive by these sanctimonious defenders of God wearing black robes. If he dared to resist, he would never end up better than Bruno.
Under the threat of the church, Galileo was forced to make a statement abandoning Copernicanism. He returned to Florence in great distress and spent several years in silence.
But deep down in his heart, Galileo did not give up the Copernican theory. On the contrary, his continuous observation and in-depth research made him more convinced that the Copernican theory is a completely correct scientific theory. In the Villa Sini on the outskirts of Florence, Galileo lived an isolated life. His health was much worse than before, and the disease was cruelly tormenting him, but he still never forgot to promote Copernicus's theory. After a long period of deliberation and almost five years, a great book "Dialogue on Two World Systems" was finally born.
"Dialogue on Two World Systems" is ostensibly a dialogue between three people, objectively discussing Ptolemy's geocentric theory and Copernicus' heliocentric theory, without prejudice to who is right and wrong. Discuss.
But when the book was finally published in February 1632, it was not difficult for careful readers to see that the book effectively criticized Aristotle and Ptolemy with sufficient arguments and a large number of indisputable facts. The erroneous theory, scientifically demonstrating Copernicus's theory of earthquakes, declared the complete bankruptcy of religious theology.
Soon, the church, whose sense of smell was better than that of a hunting dog, sniffed out the terrible ideas contained in this book, and the bold conclusions revealed between the lines caused great panic among theologians. Those academic liars who had long been dissatisfied with Galileo immediately colluded with the church, fabricated accusations, and conspired to create public opinion for the persecution of Galileo.
The irreconcilable struggle between science and theology broke out. In August 1632, the Roman Inquisition banned the sale of the book, and a special committee was appointed by the Pope to review the book. Galileo had a premonition that catastrophe was coming, and sure enough, in October, he received a document from the Inquisition asking him to go to Rome for trial.
At this time, Galileo was already 69 years old, suffering from illness and unable to move. Many people who cared about him went around to intercede for him, but the Pope said angrily: "Unless it is proven that he is unable to move, otherwise If necessary, handcuff him and take him to Rome!"
In this way, in early 1633, Galileo fell ill and came to Rome. As soon as he arrived in Rome, he lost his freedom, was thrown into the prison of the Inquisition, and no one was allowed to have contact with him.
This is how a horrific persecution in human history began. In the bloody and horrific courts of the Roman Inquisition, truth was rejected by error and science was judged by divine power. The church judges, who had murderous faces on their faces, threatened Galileo with burning at the stake to give up his faith, otherwise they would punish him with death.
The old and sick Galileo was desperate. He knew that truth could not be extinguished by violence. Although he could renounce the Copernican theory, no one could change the order among the celestial bodies in the universe.
Under the torture of interrogation and criminal law, Galileo was forced to express repentance in public in court, agreed to renounce Copernican theory, and signed the verdict.
"In order to punish you for such a serious and harmful mistake and sin, and for you to be more cautious in the future and set an example and warning to others," the presiding judge in black robes read out the verdict against Galileo in public. , "We declare by public order the ban on Galileo's Dialogue Concerning Two World Systems; we sentence you to be temporarily and formally imprisoned in prison, and in accordance with our opinion and the confession that will lead to your salvation, you will be ordered to pay weekly for three years. Read the Seven Penitential Psalms..."
Galileo's later years were very tragic. This scientist who opened up human horizons and revealed the secrets of the universe became completely blind in 1637 and fell into boundless darkness. His only relative, his youngest daughter Maliya, passed away before him, which was a huge blow to him. However, even so, Galileo still did not lose the courage to explore the truth. In 1638, his "Discussion on Two New Sciences" was published in the Netherlands with the help of friends. This book was a systematic summary of Galileo's long-term research on physics and was also the first great work of modern physics. Later, the Inquisition relaxed its surveillance on him, and several of his students, including the famous physicist and discoverer of atmospheric pressure Torricelli, came to the old man to take care of him and also asked him for advice. They can happily discuss scientific inventions together again.
On January 8, 1642, the 78-year-old Galileo stopped breathing. But the truth he defended throughout his life endures forever. Ironically, more than 300 years later, in November 1979, at the Synod of Bishops, the Pope proposed to reopen the "Galileo Case". To this end, world-renowned scientists formed a review committee to re-examine this unjust case. In fact, where is the need for trial? Spaceships fly in space, human footprints are deeply left on the surface of the moon, artificial satellites are launched into the sky, and space probes fly out of the solar system and send back radio waves... All these modern scientific and technological advances have already announced religious theology. Complete bankruptcy, mankind will always remember the dazzling name of Galileo.