This Day in History January 7, 1610

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What an impressive discovery to celebrate on this date in 1610!  Ever heard of Galileo Galilei?  He lived way back when, and his scientific discoveries were criticized strongly by the Church.  So much so that he was imprisoned and had to recant.  But that is another story.

Galileo had a primitive telescope or spyglass, and he saw four "star" around the planet Jupiter.  What he had discovered were the four largest moons that orbit Jupiter.

In honor of this discovery, these moons are now called the Galilean moons.  The publication of these findings in his day truly rocked the foundations of his world at the time.  He actually had the audacity to say that the earth was not the center of the universe.  He said that these four stars orbit Jupiter like our moon orbits the earth (blasphemy!!). These Galilean moons are now named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto (all named after lovers of the god Jupiter).  


It always amazes to realize just how small the minds of people can be--even today.  Why is it that so many people are closed-minded to new ideas?  And church people/Christians are often the worst.  We get so set in our conceptions that we are not willing to accept other views.  May I never, never, never be like that!!


For more information (and I mean a lot of it), please check out these links:
http://historymedren.about.com/od/todayinmedievalhistory/a/017.htm
http://astro-observer.com/solarsystem/jupiter/index.html
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/01/07/400-years-after-galileo-spotted-them-the-moons-of-jupiter-are-looking-fly/
http://home.comcast.net/~erniew/astro/sidnunj.html