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Galileo's First Look
Galileo Galilei was the first scientist to use a telescope to look up. What he saw was important because it disproved the notion that everything revolved around Earth. It was thought that Earth was at the center of the Universe and that everything revolved around it. Galileo made many important observations that helped to disprove this. Among other discoveries, he saw that Venus had phases like Earth's Moon. This suggested that Venus was revolving around the Sun, not Earth. He also saw that Jupiter had four moons revolving around it. Galileo saw a lot more stars than are viewable from Earth, and examined the crater-spotted surface of our Moon. Galileo's observations laid the groundwork that helped Newton develop his theories of motion—laws that explain how different bodies move. Galileo's observations are still repeated by many amateur astronomers today.
Inventor: Dutch scientist Hans Lippershey
When: 1608
Size of mirror: from a few inches to over 30 feet across
Types: refracting, reflecting, radio, X-ray, microwave, ultraviolet, gamma ray
Significance: telescopes allow humans to observe objects and events throughout the Universe
What equipment does a reflecting telescope use to help provide information?
lens
mirror
rocket
Correct!
A telescope needs light to help capture information. A reflecting telescope uses a mirror to gather the light that is needed to produce an image.
If you look through a telescope on Earth, the images you see are slightly blurred due to:
dusty mirrors
Earth's atmosphere
Earth's rotation
Correct!
When gazing at the sky through a telescope, the stars and planets have a blurry appearance. Eventually, astronomers put telescopes into orbit around Earth to avoid the blurring effects of the atmosphere.
One of the largest telescopes in the world is larger than a football field.
Fact
The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico is 1,000 feet across and has been used to study pulsars, galaxies, and the Universe.