Galileo, though not the first person to use a telescope to observe the sky, did more than anyone to popularize the device and can be fairly called the father of modern astronomy.
A devout Catholic, his writings on the Copernican (incorporating a heliocentric, or sun-centered solar system) model of the universe disturbed the church, despite his continued insistence that his work in the area was purely theoretical, and despite his close friendship with Maffeo Barberini (Pope Urban VIII, who presided throughout the ordeal). The Church, and most everyone else, held to a Ptolemaic, or Aristotelian view, incorporating an Earth-centered theory of the universe. Recent scholarship has highlighted the fact that many of Galileo's problems with the Inquisition stemmed more from his lack of judgment than from any great desire by the Catholic Church to suppress his ideas.
Nevertheless, Galileo remains a classic case of a scholar forced to recant some of his best work because it offended powerful forces in society.
He discovered the four largest satellites of Jupiter, and he was the first westerner to observe sunspots (there is an indication that chinese astronomers had already observed them).
His experimental work in dynamics paved the way for Isaac Newton's laws of motion.
Many of Galileo's theories exist today only in his notes and drawings. He created sketches of imaginary devices such as a candle and mirror combination to reflect light through an entire home, an automatic tomato picker, a pocket comb that doubled as an eating utensil, and what appeared to be a crude form of ballpoint pen.
Bertolt Brecht's drama Galileo is not primarily about Galileo, but about the duties of scientists and the nature of totalitarian thought.
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