Charles Darwin, what with the 200th anniversary of his birth as well as the 150th anniversary of the publishing of On the Origin of Species, may have sucked a lot of oxygen out of the science milestone room for 2009, but Aug. 25, 2009, marks a major milestone in the advancement of science.
On this day in 1609, Galileo Galilei revealed his latest project to interested Venetian friends and businessmen. It was his telescope, a piece of equipment that would have distressing ramifications for the quality of the inventor’s life, and astonishing benefits to the base of knowledge of the world and of the space around us.
Galileo’s innovation produced observations and evidence supporting the theory launched a century prior by Copernicus that the Earth revolved around the sun, contrary to what was believed at the time, a belief largely held in place through church doctrine.
The significant expansion in scientific knowledge of the Earth-sun relationship afforded by the telescope was not well received by Rome, and Galileo would eventually find himself living out his remaining years in house arrest following his trial for heresy.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
