Fun Facts About Galileo’s Telescope (Second Grade Astronomy continued)
Next, Galileo looked at Saturn. It his notebooks, Galileo admitted to not being able to figure out why Saturn appeared to be surrounded by planets which disappeared and reappeared. What he had thought to be planets were actually Saturn's rings. During some times of the year, Saturn's rings are clearly visible via telescope, and in some parts of the world by the naked eye.
However, during the times of year when Saturn's rings are oriented towards the earth, they seemingly disappear because their light cannot reflect back onto earth and into view. Galileo did not understand what was happening at the time, but he did understand that there were planets surrounding another heavenly body. This did not fit with the geocentric model of the universe in which all planets should surround and orbit the earth.
Finally, Galileo observed Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system and therefore easiest to see with his telescope. In modern science, Jupiter is known for its many moons. With the telescope Galileo had, however, he could only spot the three largest, which he again mistook to be planets. Even though he thought they were planets, Galileo's observations of the moons of Jupiter showed him that these heavenly bodies were circling the larger heavenly body.
These movements proved that other planets orbit around other heavenly bodies and therefore there is a chance that the earth was orbiting a large body instead of the other way around. Further studies and observations proved Galileo to be correct. By measuring the movements of observable planets, he could see that they were actually orbiting something else, similar to how earth orbited the same object, the sun. It was through all this data that Galileo conclusively agreed with Nicolas Copernicus, the imaginer behind the heliocentric model of the universe.
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