It was on this day in 1633, Galileo Galilei – the great physicist, astronomer, physicist and philosopher - was put on trial for his belief and his works that sought to prove that the Sun was the centre of the universe and that the Earth orbited around it and not the other way around.
He was tried for questioning the Catholic doctrine which at that point believed that the Earth had been created by God and that the entire universe was based around it with all other objects revolving around it. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, Galileo’s belief was a blasphemy.
By the end of 1609, with the help of his telescope, Galileo had made remarkable discoveries on the night sky that changed so many perceptions. He published these astronomical discoveries in a short book called the Starry Messenger, in 1610. Galileo claimed that the Milky Way was made up of tiny stars, claimed to have seen mountains on the Moon and that four small bodies were orbiting the Jupiter. The work caused a sensation.
Although he put forward many revolutionary theories, he was not correct in all cases. In 1618, he became involved in a controversy regarding the nature of comets with his argument that the comets were close to the earth and were caused by optical refraction. From then onwards, the Jesuits, who were experts in Church teachings, science and natural philosophy, became skeptical and hostile towards Galileo and considered him a dangerous opponent.
Galileo’s surprising discoveries of the sky, the stars and the earth exposed severe difficulties with the scientific understanding of the universe that had prevailed since the beginning of science. Moreover his findings also raised interest in other subjects like the Copernican Theory which was attacked by many scientists because it disagreed with Aristotle’s model of the universe besides defying various passages in the Scriptures.
With these conflicts with theology, astronomy and philosophy, Galileo unwillingly found .himself in the middle of the controversies which ended in him being sent to the Roman Inquisition for trial. The Inquisition sentenced him to death in 1933 on a grave suspicion of heresy, “for holding as true the false doctrine taught by some that the sun is the centre of the world”.
Thanks to his brilliant intuition and arguments as a physical scientist, he understood why only the Sun could be the centre of the planetary system. In 2000 Pope John Paul II issued a formal apology for all the mistakes committed by some Catholics in the last 2000 years of Catholic Church’s history including the trial of Galileo Galilei.