Astro2110 – The Solar System

My chosen astronomy is Galileo. He was born Feb 15, 1564 and died Jan 8, 1642. Galileo was important for astronomy because he published his work using telescopes to observe the night sky, discovered three of Jupiter’s moons, made detailed observations of our moon, observed the phases of Venus, described the Milky Way as being made up of many stars, and defended heliocentrism.

The late 16^th century and early 17^th century had many events that influenced the rest of history. Two major historical events that happened during Galileo’s lifetime are: 1) the publication of Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel Cervantes, which is widely regarded as “the world’s first modern novel.” Don Quixote is one of my favorite books and influenced literature of the present. It is referenced in The Three Musketeers, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Cyrano de Bergerac. The word quixotic is even derived from the main character! 2) Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth in 1620. About 102 settlers came over on the ship during the Great Puritan Migration, and these pilgrims were some of the first settlers in America aft Plymouth was established. Colonization of America great altered not only social history, but geologic history. The colonizers and settlers brought with them to the New World diseases and new species of animals. The subsequent spread of illnesses, war, enslavement, and famine saw a 90% decrease in human population. Human numbers went from 54 million people in the Americas in 1492 to 1650. This drastic decline in population and near end in farming and fire use led to the regeneration of forests and the uncreased uptake of carbon by terrestrial vegetation. There was an observed decline in atmospheric carbon by 7-10ppm! (Lewis and Maslin, 2015) Colonization allowed the United States to grow into what it is today but also entrenched our country in a violent and racist past.

William Shakespeare was born the same year as Galileo in 1564. He is important because of the works he produced as a writer, poet, and playwright that people continue to read and enjoy today.  

This was an interesting assignment because I hadn’t realized that many of these important and famous historical figures lived at the same time or within years of each other. It was particularly surprising to be that Kepler, Brahe, and Shakespeare all lived at the same time as Galileo. In my mind Galileo seemed a lot older than all of them. I suppose it makes sense why we regard this era in history as the Renaissance, because truly so many important discoveries and works were being added to the world that are still valuable today. I also never realized Galileo was alive for either of these events however, and in my mind they are such different times!

2) Galileo (February 15, 1564 – January 8, 1642) was incredibly important to the progress and history of astronomy. He carried on the work done by Kepler in helping prove that the Copernican heliocentric model of our solar system was correct rather than the Aristotelian geocentric. He did this by disproving many of the objections people had with the heliocentric model. Using the principle of what became Newton’s 1^st Law of Motion, he showed objects on Earth would not get left behind if Earth was moving as Aristotle asserted. This alone nearly overturned Aristotle’s view of physics and the solar system. However, he also used his telescope to show that the “heavens” were imperfect and that stars were further away than Tycho believed, and, thus, parallax may not be detectable by the naked eye. Despite all his evidence, the Church forced him to recant his claims.[1]

3) In 1607, colonists established the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown in what became Virginia.[2]

In 1632, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan commissioned the building of the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum of his wife’s tomb. It is regarded as one of the architectural masterpieces of the world and was fully completed in 1653.[3]

Miguel de Cervantes (September 29, 1547 – April 22, 1616) lived for a large period of Galileo’s life. Famous for being the author of El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (or, in English, The Ingenious Gentleman Sir Quixote of La Mancha), Cervantes is often credited with writing the first modern novel and a pioneer of Western literature. Don Quixote today is still regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written.[4]

4) Reflecting on this assignment, I gained a greater appreciation for the incredible ability of early astronomers to make advancements in the field with such rudimentary instruments. It is easy to look back now and ask how one could so easily be attached to the idea of the perfect heavens or a geocentric universe against strong evidence. But understanding their discoveries in context with the time period and the societal forces in play against them expands the window into not only the technological difficulties of astronomical exploration, but the societal barriers as well.