Galileo Galilei was one of the most important scientists known to man and created inventions that helped humanity for the longest time. Galileo made the telescope better which was purported to allow us to look closely at places far away, like into space. Galileo was able to make an inference saying that the Earth was not the center of the universe and the Sun might be. Most people thought that idea was weird but were soon able to proffer the idea that maybe it was real. Many new inventions in modern times are allowing us to look farther and we have evolved Galileo’s telescope into something even better. In modern times, we invented the Thirty Meter Telescope which can allow us to see into deep space unlike Galileo’s telescope.
Galileo’s telescope in the 1500’s was so impressive because it was the first telescope that allowed people to see that the Earth was not the center of the universe and we could also we other planets. The author said “Galileo was able to see four moons orbiting Jupiter that showed signs of another planet”. Now we are able to see even farther into space with the Thirty Meter Telescope. The author stated “it is stationed in Mauna Kea, Hawaii and is used to observe stars in our galaxy and may even be able to see other galaxies around ours”. He also stated that “the Thirty Meter Telescope has a thirteen times better resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope”. The Thirty Meter Telescope is a very big advancement in Astronomy because it is a telescope that can see neighboring stars from our galaxy and others from the ground. Galileo was able to make the telescope better so we could see more planets around our Solar System but the Thirty Meter Telescope can allow us to see stars in our galaxy and many others. The author stated that “the Thirty Meter Telescope can evolve the way we look at astronomy but we would have never been able to make such a huge advancement unless Galileo’s telescope was made”. As you can see there was a large deference between Galileo’s telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope but we would not be able to have such a good telescope unless Galileo was alive.
I can connect to the story in a way that I don’t think anyone else could. I am actually very into Astronomy and I looked into my first telescope about seven years ago. When I looked into that telescope I saw that there was a whole new world out there and I started thinking of becoming an astronomer. I had to deviate the idea when I started learning about Astronomy in school because it started to make no sense to me, until we learned about Galileo. When we learned about Galileo my mind started to open up about how cool Astronomy was and how I wanted my friends to learn about Astronomy to. I was able to proliferate the idea that Astronomy was cool to my friends and they wanted to learn about it to. We kept learning about Astronomy but none of us really understood it so we went back to doing the stuff we enjoyed doing. If Galileo never evolved the telescope I don’t think I would have been able to have that amazing experience I had when I was eight and ten.
Mauna Kea and the Thirty Meter Telescope
http://www.maunakeaandtmt.org/
Inventors and Scientists: Galileo Galilei
https://newsela.com/articles/BHP-U2-2-GalileoGalilei/id/3579/