By Dr. Fatehi Saleh;

Director, Center for Documentation of Cultural & Natural Heritage (CULTNAT)

On the occasion of 400 years since Galileo invented the first manmade telescope that drastically changed the scientific perception of mankind to the universe, the UNESCO together with the International Astronomical Union- IAU have launched the year 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy- IYA 2009. Accordingly, events were organized and scheduled throughout the year on local, national, regional and international levels to celebrate the magnificent impact of Galileo’s work on the history of science as well as on the history of humanity.

At the time of Galileo, they invented the optical lenses and extended their use to spying tasks; the king or the prince in his palace would use a tube with two lenses (that became the binoculars later on) to watch what people were doing in the gardens. Galileo, passionate by science and the theories of Copernicus, decided to use the lenses in a different way; he built a tube out of leather sheets of about one meter long, and fixed two appropriate lenses at both ends to form the first telescope ever. With this primitive telescope Galileo made four important observations.

First, he found that Jupiter is surrounded by four moons that are revolving around it and not around earth. Second, he discovered that Venus had different phases (like those of the moon) related to its position in relation to the sun; this meant that Venus was revolving around the sun and not around earth. Third, he saw the details of the surface of the moon with its flat areas (Mare) and mountains (Craters) and drew these details in a series of sketches. Finally, he watched Saturn and discovered the rings around it for the first time.

Until the time of Galileo, human beings thought the Universe to be Geocentric (Planet Earth is the center and all celestial bodies are rotating around it including the sun, the moon, and the five planets known at the time: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, as well as the sphere of stars). From Galileo’s observations, especially the first two, he concluded that the universe is not Geocentric but indeed it is Heliocentric (centered around the sun and not the earth). He also concluded that the earth does not only revolve around the sun but it also rotates around its own access once everyday.

Since these discoveries were against the existing knowledge and the inherited religious beliefs, Galileo was condemned by the church and had to deny his discoveries to escape execution. He was consequently imprisoned and isolated in his own house until the day he died in his seventies.

People often use the story of Galileo when they talk about discrimination and ignorance because it is such an evident example of how anybody that comes up with a new idea, thought or theory or even an interpretation that is different to the existing common knowledge, might be subject to isolation, discrimination or censorship up until today.

This has always happened and is still happening in science as well as in religion and politics; the legendary Egyptian writer Taha Hussein was accused of atheism when he wrote a book about the Jahely poems and of course all the stories of the different prophets bare the same situation.