Galileo Galilei

The work of Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (known as Galileo) revolutionized astronomy. Galileo developed the telescope and made important discoveries about the planets and the sun. His observations confirmed the work of the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) who believed that the Earth and other planets revolve around the sun. This finding went against the Church's teaching that the Earth is the center of the universe, and the Church punished Galileo. Galileo suggested the use of the pendulum in clocks and also discovered an important principle about gravity – that the rate at which an object falls is not related to its weight.